The Fruits of Labor
by SesshoumaruLvr
Summary: Kyo and Yuki struggle to accept that they both have strong feelings towards Tohru. Tohru is put in the situation of having feelings for both of the boys. All three try to distinguish between lust and love. Plus a twist later on.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter One:** Peeping Sohmas 

The Sohma residence usually never rested at any hour of the day, and this morning was no exception.

"You damn rat. Think you're so smart, eh pretty boy? You couldn't shoot a fish in a barrel!" the orange haired boy yelled in his fighting stance.

Calm, silver-haired Yuki began to get a little frustrated with his opposite companion. "Honestly, can't you think of anything better to say you dumb cat?"

Kyo narrowed his eyes and quickly tried to get a cheap shot at Yuki. But swift and quick, Yuki threw the busy cat over his shoulder and through the thin wall, into the garden.

Tohru gasped with her hands clamped over her mouth. "Oh no! Kyo!"

She rushed through the wall tear and kneeled next to Kyo, whose face was buried in the garden's soil. "Kyo, are you alright?" She gripped his shoulder trying to get him up.

"Don't waste your time on him Miss Honda," Yuki smoothly spoke as he leaned out of the broken wall.

Tohru ignored Yuki and still continued to tug on Kyo. As usual, Kyo admitted defeat with his huffy attitude. He shoved Tohru off his shoulder and quickly got to his feet, "Get away! I don't need anyone's help! One day I'll get that rat, all on my own!" Then without anything else, the pride-injured cat sprinted away into the woods.

Tohru was use to Kyo's rudeness and didn't hold it against him at all. She always just smiled in his wake of anguish and left well enough alone.

Yuki walked over to Tohru and escorted her back into the house.

"I'm sorry Miss Honda. That cat needs to learn some manors. No doubt I'll teach him a few later…" the handsome boy thought of demented things to do to his cat friends for being so cruel to Tohru. There's more than one way to skin a cat and he would prove that, oh how he would.

Tohru just kept her silly little grin and looked up at Yuki. "Please don't start anything with Kyo, especially not on my account. I just want as must peace we can have."

Yuki agreed, but still wanted to smack around Kyo.

Shigure's voice soon came ringing into the room, "Tohru why don't you make something delicious for breakfast, well then again everything you make is delicious!" The rugged writer entered the room first with a grin then he observed the newest destruction to his room. He let out a sobbing sigh, "Oh Yuki, how many times have I told you to fight Kyo outside! If you keep this up we'll have that supply store satisfied for the next few hundred years!"

Tohru gleefully smiled and offered to fix the wall, but neither of the Sohma's would allow it. So she agreed to make some food as they would try and make a temporary patch till they could make a trip to the supply store.

"Where's that damn cat? At least he could help clean up his mess," spat Yuki as he put some panel on the wall.

Shigure shook his head, "By the looks of it Yuki, I'd say you threw Kyo out the wall. I'm pretty sure that wasn't exactly by his request."

Yuki side-glared at his older cousin and retreated from the wall, "I have homework to do, you can finish this up on your own, can't you Shigure?"

Shigure was about to protest but Yuki had disappeared from the room. The dog muttered little curses under his breath has he continued to fix the wall. Then suddenly a great story idea came to him. Something involving a lonely trophy wife and a construction worker. He quickly left the room to his study to get it all written down.

Yuki actually didn't have homework from school. He usually finished it in class. The task he really wanted to conquer was to track down Kyo and give him a piece of his mind about how he acted towards Tohru.

Tohru entered the half-done wall room with news of food. But she found no one in there. She called for Yuki and Shigure, and only the faithful dog showed. Shigure said Yuki was either doing homework or out to kick the tar out of Kyo. For Kyo's sake, she hoped homework. Alas, she didn't find Yuki in his room.

Now Tohru was begging to stress about what would happen if Yuki found Kyo. Would they fight worse than they had before? She felt bad for Kyo. How many beatings could he take in such a small period of time?

She entered the dining area and saw Shigure helping himself to Yuki's dish. She silently chuckled to herself and then stated that she would be out back taking a bath.

Thankfully the Sohma residence was far away from the local streets and suburbs, otherwise someone might have heard the bitter cat and mouse go at it.

"You should be nicer to Miss Honda. She's the one who after all feeds you and cleans up after you!" Yuki punched his rival in the cheek.

Kyo barely flinched by the blow to his face and retaliated. He began kicking and throwing punches, but never landed any injury to his opponent.

"I never asked her to!" the orange haired boy growled aiming a kick at Yuki's head, but was stopped by the ankle and slung into a tree trunk. Yuki walked over to him, glooming over his bruised body.

"I demand you apologize to her Kyo. She might seem unaffected by it, but it doesn't mean it doesn't hurt her!" He grabbed Kyo up by his hair. "Do you understand you filthy cat?"

Kyo screwed up his face and slapped Yuki's grip away. "You have a lot of nerve you rat. You have no right to call demands of me and expect me to comply. You must be dreaming if you think I would ever do anything you ask me to."

No matter how much Kyo hated to admit it, Yuki was right. He shouldn't have been so mean to her. He would try his best at apologizing to her the next time he saw her. These types of things weren't exactly his strong suit.

Yuki began walking away from Kyo. This aggravated Kyo a lot. So he got right up and followed him, yelling insults after another. Yuki just simply ignored him, which annoyed Kyo even more.

Finally the rear of the Sohma house appeared, as the boys approached.

Kyo finally stopped harassing Yuki and looked around. He saw that the bath was steaming with hot water. Previously last week Yuki and he had broken the privacy walls of the bath. So now when they all bathed they had a first seat of Mother Nature.

Then all of a sudden Kyo spotted Tohru walked over to the bath. Her hair was put up and she was wrapped in a white towel. She skimmed the top of the water, testing its warmth.

Kyo hadn't noticed that he had stopped walking, but Yuki had. "What are you doing you dumb cat? Kyo?" He followed Kyo's gaze to the bath and Tohru.

"Oh shame, come now, let her bathe in peace," he tugged on Kyo's shirt sleeve.

Kyo just stood his ground, for some reason he didn't want to look away, yet he knew it was so wrong. Apparently Tohru hadn't noticed the two boys, since the bushes and trees were concealing them quite well.

Kyo crouched down like a cat behind a bush, his eyes peering over it observing the scene before him. Yuki glared at him.

"You little perverted flee-bag! Allow Miss Honda some privacy! Don't make me beat up again!" He yelled in a hushed tone.

The mischief orange haired boy grinned devilishly up at the disapproving rat. "You know you want to watch just as much as any other male would. Besides she's seen us naked quite a few times. I think it's time we have some sort of peep show ourselves."

Yuki was taken back by this and thought about it. It is true, Tohru has seen him and other Sohma's naked plenty of time, also he did often fantasize about the doting girl. But he would be damned if he would be demoted to a peeping tom. Well in this case a peeping rat.

Suddenly Yuki sat down next to Kyo, crouching in hiding.

"Finally come to your senses you rat?" mocked Kyo.

Yuki snarled, "I'm only here to make sure you don't try anything with Miss Honda."

"Right. What ever you say you pervert," Kyo chuckled and then pointed back towards what the prize was.

Tohru had left the bath area while the boys were deciding, more like Yuki, whether to stay or not. Soon she resurfaced, still in the same attire they last saw.

Both boy's eyes were glued on the female; waiting vigorously for her to reveal herself to them unknowingly.

Tohru inhaled the aromas fuming from the bath. This is just what she needed was a nice relaxing bath to take her mind of the morning's fight. She had been hesitant to take a bath since the two karate kids broke the walls surrounding the bath.

She felt as if she wasn't the only one in the area, as if someone was watching her every movement. But she convinced herself it was just paranoia.

She removed the towel and hung it on a hook and slipped into the warm water. Her muscles quivered in delight. She sighed in relief and slid deeper into the water.

Both of the boys' eyes were just fixated on Tohru. Their heart beats were rising to great amounts. "She's quite lovely, is she not Kyo?" Yuki whispered, not taking his eyes off Tohru.

"Lovely? She's the best thing I've ever seen in my life. I had no idea she was so fit and well gifted. You know?" Kyo smirked and he too did not take his gaze of her.

Yuki though felt a sudden rush of guilt and broke his gaze. "I feel horrible. How embarrassing for her and us if she found out. We are terrible, we must go now Kyo."

"You can, I'm staying. I want to see her dry off, no doubt that will be another sweet vision for me," grinned Kyo.

Yuki shoved Kyo. Kyo shoved back. They began a tiny little petty fight. Then, without thinking Yuki shoved Kyo over the bushes.

Tohru heard commotion by some bushes and screamed when she saw the two Sohma's.

"Kyo! Yuki! Have you two been there the whole time!" Exclaimed Tohru who hugged herself to hide her private parts, blushing a violent shade of red.

Both boys quickly stood up and looked at the ground and quietly shook their heads in shame.

Tohru felt a sudden burst of humiliation and anger. "I suppose the pervert gene runs in the family. You guys have been hanging around Shigure to much. Now go away, I don't think I'll be able to cook dinner tonight or even lay eyes upon you two. I'm retiring to my room for the rest of the day!" She quickly grabbed the towel, wrapped herself up and rushed to her room.

Yuki looked at Kyo and growled at him. He gave a very powerful thrust of his fist into Kyo's shoulder.

"Ai! What the hell was that for you Baka?" Kyo grabbed his shoulder in pain.

"If you hadn't insisted we stayed, Miss Honda wouldn't be mad at us right now. Looks like both of us have some apologizing tonight. Also, you're making dinner, unless you want burnt anything," Yuki walked away pissed off at allowing himself to be overcome by lustful desires.

Kyo walked off in the opposite direction. He was pissed off at Kyo was blaming him for everything. Yuki's his own person, he could have left anytime. So why blame everything on the cat when it's the rat himself who couldn't control himself.

Kyo smirked pushing the image of Tohru's pleasant vision.

**A/N:**

**Ok well this is the first installment. I haven't written a fan fiction in like two years, so I might be a bit rusty at the moment. Comments are much appreciated. Thank for reading all the way through! Hope you enjoyed yourself!**


	2. Chapter 2

"Rice? Is that all you know how to make Kyo?" Shigure whined as he looked down at his plate of plain rice.

"Just eat it you damn mutt!" Kyo roared as he stuffed a scoop of rice into his mouth.

Yuki just poked at his plate and looked at it disgusted, like it was poison or something.

"Can some one explain to me why our little Tohru wasn't up to cooking this evening? Hmmm…Kyo? Yuki?" Shigure eyed both the boys suspiciously.

Both boys quickly glanced at each other. Kyo began stumbling some sort of sentence until Yuki recovered him and said, "She doesn't feel well. She thinks it's from her lunch earlier." Kyo agreed with Yuki's explanation.

Shigure smirked and cocked an eyebrow at both of them, "Now I know neither of you would be lying to me, right?"

Both boys shook their head to his silent accusation.

Shigure chuckled, "Boys I'm surprised! Why do you feel the need to lie to me?"

"But Shigure we're not," Protested Yuki.

"More lies, oh I feel so betrayed!" Shigure moaned dramatically. He was obviously being sarcastic with them. After drying away some imaginary tears he looked at them with a serious look. "Have you boys forgotten that I have an extremely good sense of hearing?"

"How do your doggy ears find us guilty of lying?" Kyo smirked.

"It has everything to do with it actually. Let me explain," Shigure pushed his bowl of rice away, the smell was irritating him. "After eating my voluptuous lunch I went to write more of my story, which I feel, is going to be a great hit. Just when I was getting on a roll with my writing I heard Tohru scream. So like any hero I went to her aid. To my surprise I found her yelling at you two for spying on her while she was bathing."

"Shigure we can completely explain, Kyo here-" Yuki began an explanation before being interruption.

"What! You can't pin this all on me!" Kyo stood up ready to pounce on Yuki who looked so innocent.

"Boys calm down; I'm not going to judge you. You both are getting to that age where you just can't help yourself," both of them looked at Shigure with disbelief. Shigure began scratching his chin, "I wonder if it's time I told you two about the birds and the bees…"

Yuki and Kyo shot up and in unison said, "We've got homework! Bye!" They shot out of the room like a cannonball. Shigure's pride was a little hurt; he had been preparing the talk all afternoon. But suddenly an inspiration hit him and he forgot about the boys.

Tohru sat scrunched up under her covers; her dark hair was still damp.

She thought about what had happened earlier. She just couldn't believe that they saw her naked. If anyone was to spy on her while she was naked, she would think it to be Shigure.

She couldn't help but wonder what Yuki and Kyo thought about her. Were they pleased or disgusted by her?

What was she thinking! It shouldn't matter, what they did was totally wrong and perverted. They should be the ones who feel like dirt right now. For all she knew they could, but she wasn't about to go find out.

School was tomorrow, she should get some rest.

(Morning)

Yuki stumbled into the kitchen, barely awake.

"Morning Yuki!" Shigure cheered as he was reading the morning paper and drinking some green tea.

"Yeah…ugh…where's Miss Honda?" Yuki mumbled as he scratched his tossed bed hair.

Kyo growled, "She left for school extra early to avoid us. How are we ever supposed to apologize to her if she keeps steering clear of us!"

Yuki poured himself a glass of milk and sat down next to Kyo. "I don't know. What we did to her was awful. Maybe she just needs her space."

"Well she couldn't be mad at you two that much. She made your lunches as usual. Don't worry, you'll get a chance to explain yourselves eventually," Shigure looked at the clock, "Your late."

Yuki and Kyo jumped up in alert attention and confirmed that they were late. They grabbed their books and dashed out the door.

"Hmmm, they forgot their lunches," Shigure said to himself. A mischief grin grew on his face. He looked to his left, then right and grabbed the lunches. "I suppose I'll have to go to the school and bring these right to them!"

He put on his coat and made his way to the high school, all the while chanting, "High school girls, high school girls!"

"No way! Those perverts! They really did that! I'll crunch them into little pieces," Uo shouted slamming her hand on her desk. Causing a few surrounding students to stare at her.

"No Uo it's all right. You honestly don't have to do anything. I can take care of it myself," Tohru said shaking her head shyly.

"Little Tohru you couldn't even hurt a fly, let alone take care of two perverts," rebutted Uo.

Hana, with her usual blank expression agreed with Uo. Hana was the one who actually got Tohru to talk about what was bugging her, saying her wavelengths were upsetting.

"Please you guys. Promise you won't do anything. I would really like to try to figure this thing out on my own," pleaded Tohru.

Uo hesitated a bit then said, "All right, but if you need me to knock a few heads around, just let me know."

Just as she finished speaking, the two peeping toms entered class, huffing from running.

The teacher called order to start class, the boys tried to get close to Tohru in order to apologize, but Uo and Hana stared them down.

Finally lunch came around; Yuki figured he could talk to Tohru then.

"Miss Honda, can I please have a word with you?" Yuki asked as the class let out. Tohru just nodded silently.

He pulled her outside and stayed close to the outside wall.

"Look, about yesterday. I can not express how horrible I feel that it happened."

"You mean you're sorry that you got caught?" retorted Tohru.

Yuki shook his head, "That's not at all what I meant Miss Honda. I'm ashamed of what I did, so is Kyo. We should have respected your privacy."

"Well you're right, you should have," Tohru crossed her arms.

"I'll make it up to you in any way that I can," Yuki's face was totally sincere.

"No, we'll make it up to you. I'm sorry about peeking on you and for yelling at you the other day," Kyo had suddenly joined them.

"Well actually I have an idea on how you two can repay what you did. Follow me," Tohru started walking away and they followed, wondering what they could possibly do at school to repay her.

Tohru led them into a deserted classroom.

"What are we doing in here Tohru?" Kyo asked a bit shady on the whole idea of what was happening.

"Don't worry about that, I just needed to be somewhere where no one would see," Tohru smiled coyly.

"To see what?" Yuki said now being just as skittish as Kyo.

Before they knew it, Tohru had her arms around both of them and POOF!

"Tohru! What are you doing?" Kyo screeched, now in the form of an orange cat. Yuki popped out of his clothes as a cute little grey rat.

Tohru picked up their clothes and stuff them into her bag. She scooped up Yuki and Kyo and shoved them into her bag as well. Of course they protested, but what could they truly do.

Quickly Tohru made her way to the lunch room and headed for a corner. She let Yuki and Kyo out and rushed away to where Hana and Uo were.

"Tohru, what did Prince Yuki want?" Uo mocked Yuki's fan girl name.

"Well actually it was Kyo and him. They just wanted to apologize. They said they'd do anything to repay me," Tohru began to take out her lunch, which was buried under the boys' clothes.

"Anything? Well then maybe we should take them up on that offer…" Uo said.

"Already have," smirked Tohru.

Both Uo and Hana were about to ask what she had done but suddenly the room was full of girl screams.

Suddenly Kyo and Yuki appear from under a table of girls. Worse enough they were head of the Yuki fan club.

Kyo and Yuki ran quickly out of the lunch room covering their, ahem, private parts with their hands.

Uo and Hana's mouths were dropped to the floor. Tohru smiled at them, pulled the clothes from her bag and followed where they had left.

Hidden in the boys bathroom, Yuki and Kyo locked themselves in separate stalls.

"I can't believe she did that!" Kyo grunted.

"Yes, that was a bit out of place for Miss Honda. She could have easily exposed us. Thankfully no one saw us in our zodiac form," Yuki's heart was pounding. He couldn't even begin to think about how he would cover up his and Kyo's naked slip.

"I suppose it was what we deserved anyways. But it was still way out of line," Kyo huffed.

"Yeah but how do we get our clothes back?" Yuki asked feeling insecure about what had happened.

Tohru had figured the boys had gone into the bathroom. She confirmed this when she heard them talking inside.

She looked around herself, seeing no one was around, and entered the bathroom.

"All right boys, I have your clothes. We're even now," she said throwing each of them their uniform over the stalls.

Yuki came out dressed first; Kyo was having trouble dressing in the tiny small.

"Tohru, I understand why you did what you did. But remember we have placed trust in you with our secret. What you did could have easily exposed us," Yuki said straightening his wrist cuffs.

"I know, it was really unsafe of me to do, but you two needed a lesson. I figured this was the best way to go about it," she explained now realizing she was in the boys bathroom, which wasn't quite sweet smelling or sanitary.

Kyo finally exited the stall glaring at Tohru.

"You were irresponsible. Do you have any idea how embarrassing that was for us?" He shouted.

She looked at him and plainly stated, "Yes, as a matter of fact I do."

Guilt filled both of the boys. All three of them shuffled in the silence moments that followed.

"I think it's best if we all go home and talk this out. Shigure can call later to excuse us," Yuki said now leading them out of the bathroom.

"Actually he can do it now. I saw him when I was coming to find you two. He came over to drop off the lunches you left. He was busy chatting with some female students, enchanting them with his writing ability," Tohru giggled.

Kyo didn't speak much; he was pretty ticked about what Tohru had done.

They slipped out of school easily.

"Tohru, I hope you know that if Akito finds out what you did, he might well you know," Yuki quietly said this.

"Oh," was all Tohru could say. She never thought about it that way.

"Yeah, but we won't say anything, right Kyo?" Kyo didn't say anything, just grunted. Tohru was relieved.

They finally reached the house. When they entered they smelled tea coming from the living room.

"I guess Shigure is back," Yuki said as they all entered the dining room. Tohru wasn't paying attention and said, "Shigure do I have any requests for dinner?"

Suddenly all three of them froze and fixated on the person before them.

"Hello Tohru Honda. I believe we have a matter to discuss," said the cold voice of Akito.

A/N:

Ok well there you have it, the second chapter. Thanks everyone for the reviews on the first chapter, I really appreciate it. Also sorry for the writing errors in the first chapter, I re-read this one a few times, I am pretty sure the mistakes are limited to a few. (That is if there is some I over looked). Thanks again!


	3. Chapter 3

"Yuki, Kyo, I hope now you realize why I was so hesitant on allowing this outsider to live here," Akito spoke with such hate in his voice. Suddenly the three teens acknowledged Hatori standing behind Akito, silent as always.

Tohru's heart was pounding so much it was beginning to hurt. Yuki though was frozen in his place, eyes fixed on Akito. Childhood memories started flooding through his head. Akito smirked, he knew what affect he had on Yuki, and he enjoys the fear everyone has of him, especially Yuki's.

"Girl, do you know that what you did today has basically condemned you?" Akito said in a superior tone.

Tohru bowed her head in shame and whispered, "Yes…"

Another slimy smile crept upon Akito's face. "Good. Then you won't try to struggle when Hatori erases all your memory of the Sohma family secret?"

Still with her head hanging low, tears starting to form, Tohru shook her head.

With a grim face, Hatori walked over to Tohru. Kyo stepped in front of him with eyes begging him not to do it.

"Move aside Kyo, this is what Akito thinks is right…" Hatori said, just as unhappy with what he had to do as everyone else.

Kyo stood his ground, staring Hatori down, "You can't do this. I won't allow it."

"Kyo, are you defying me? Do I need to remind you where your loyalty lies?" Akito snapped.

Kyo looked down at his feet. He knew that going against Akito would mean severe punishment, but he just couldn't allow Tohru's mind to be messed with.

"Kyo, please. It's all right, it's my entire fault. There's no reason for you to get into trouble," Tohru said now looking into Kyo's eyes. She managed a sad smile and just nodded for Kyo to move away.

"Tohru but if he does this, you'll forget about us, me," Kyo walked closer to Tohru. "Please, don't give up so easily."

"Even if I tried to fight to keep my memories, do you think he'd allow it? No, so let's just not struggle with this," Tohru walked passed Kyo and up to Hatori, "You ready?"

"NO!" yelled Yuki, who had suddenly snapped out of his statue form.

Everyone looked at him in disbelief from his outburst.

"Yuki?" Tohru said, she was beginning to think Yuki didn't care whether she kept her memories or not, but now she questions that.

"Hatori step away from her," growled Yuki, now getting between Tohru and Hatori.

Tohru suddenly became hot in the face and was blushing quite brilliantly.

"That's all right Hatori, step back over here," Akito said. Hatori walked back and Akito glided forward. His face was against Yuki's ear.

Akito wickedly whispered, "Oh Yuki. Do I need to bring you home, punish you? I've missed you; I know you've missed me."

Yuki was now frozen again. His body tensed and his heart was beating with fear.

Tohru had seen this before, where Akito intimidates Yuki. It hurts and frightens her to see how much control Akito can have over Yuki.

Suddenly the sound of a sliding door was heard. Shigure soon emerged onto the scene.

"Akito, Hatori, what are you doing here?" Shigure said with worry in his voice.

Akito gladly pointed at Tohru and said, "She has endangered our secret and has to be dealt with."

Shigure's eyes opened wide and looked to his friend Hatori for a confirmed look; which he regretfully received.

"Akito, I'm not quite sure what she did, but isn't there any other way to get around it. Please we can come to a compromise surely," Shigure reasoned.

"A compromise? How can you belittle our secret to some compromise?" Akito said now backing off of Yuki. Yuki relaxed and breathed in heavily.

"Akito…" Yuki said grabbing everyone's attention. "I'd like to purpose something."

Akito smiled, "And that would be?"

"I'll return to the Sohma home, if you allow Miss Honda to keep her memories." Everyone was absolutely shocked by Yuki's suggestion, including Akito.

Tohru protested, "No Yuki, I can't allow you to do that."

Akito shushed her, "I think it's quite understandable. But honestly Yuki, you think I'd risk our family secret with her just to have you back under my watchful eye?" He paused, "I would rather much have all of you Yuki, Kyo, and the girl back living with the rest of the Sohma family. That way I could always have my eyes on all of you."

"Wait. Are you saying what I think you're saying Akito?" Hatori asked.

"I guess I am. Girl, you can keep your memories as long as all three of you move into the Sohma Family residence. All of you will stay there until I feel it necessary to allow you all leave," Akito said. Everyone glanced around at each other.

"Fine," Yuki said firmly. Kyo rushed up into the conversation.

"Hey you can't make that decision without talking to all of us you rat!" Kyo shouted.

Yuki looked at him, "Then do you want Miss Honda to lose her memory?" Kyo silenced and shook his head no. Yuki looked at Shigure, "Would you mind living alone Shigure?"

"And not have my house get beat up? It's surely fine with me," he chuckled trying to bring some comic relief to the situation.

Yuki turned to Tohru, "Are you all right with this Miss Honda?"

Tohru looked up at his soft eyes and nodded smiling, "Only if you and Kyo want to."

Yuki gently smiled, "Then it's settled."

Akito looked at Hatori, "Come, we'll take our leave now. We'll send a car for you three later tonight, so pack up fast." With that, both of them left leaving the room quite silent.

Shigure figured to leave them alone; he figured they all needed to talk in private. But if they talk loud enough for him to hear, he's not to blame.

Tohru collapsed on a chair, her head buried in her hands. She was upset and crying, "I'm so sorry you guys. I wish I never did those things. You should have just let him erase my memories."

Yuki knelt next to her, he grabbed her hands from her face softly, "Don't allow yourself to feel guilt. This is no one's fault, we all got careless, and that's all. I'll help you pack if you wish."

Kyo stood next to Tohru, giving one of his rare smiles, "That's right, we all screwed up, mostly Yuki and I. So don't worry, besides it won't be all too awful living there. Sure everyone practically shunned me when I lived there, but I'm sure they've grown hearts by now."

Tohru chuckled a bit; she knew they were just trying to cheer them up. But she couldn't help but feel like this was all her fault, and deep down inside, she knew it was.

The three of them went to their rooms and packed up what they had and waited for the car to arrive.

"Before we leave can I ask you two something?" Tohru asked.

"Sure," they said in unison.

"Akito, do you think he has some secret agenda by doing this?" Tohru looked mainly at Yuki when she asked this.

Yuki, without blinking said, "Yes. There's no doubt about it. But we're just going to have to take this one step at a time."

"Oh," Tohru said under her breath. Soon a car's horn was heard and the three of them said their goodbyes to Shigure and left to their new home.

**A/N:**

**Hope you all enjoyed this chapter (it was rather short). Thanks to everyone who's left reviews, I really appreciate them!**


	4. Chapter 4

Tohru, Yuki, and Kyo were led through the burrows of Sohma homes. Their presence was distinctly obvious. You could see pairs of white eyes in the dark homes, following the three of them as they walked.

Tohru got chills up her back, but the boys were use to this.

They were led into the room of Akito. Tohru cringed remembering her last visit here. Akito had attacked her out of anger, but she had some how reached him to sanity with her words, no matter how temporarily they were.

"Welcome to your new home," Akito said. He was sitting at his usual spot; between the open doors of his garden, looking up into the sky.

Kyo crossed his arms in hate, Yuki of course just stood numb, and Tohru just folded her hands in front of herself smiling like an idiot.

"Jasper, my new assistant, will show you to your rooms," a tall lanky pale man stood in the middle of the room. "In case you were wondering, your rooms are located in this house."

Yuki locked up, things had just worsened for the little rat. Kyo just rolled his eyes.

"Follow me please," Jasper slid open a door leading into a dark hallway. The three of them slowly walked over to Jasper. Tohru looked over at Akito as she walked, and for a few seconds he locked eye sight with her. Her heart jumped in fear.

Jasper slid the door behind all of them. "Master Yuki, your room is this one on the left. Akito's room is across on the right." Akito winced thinking of what was to become of him. "Lady Tohru, your room is this one on the right and Master Kyo, yours is on the left. Please summon me if you need anything."

"Thank you Jasper! I'm sure we'll find everything just fine!" Tohru cheered. Jasper just gave her an odd look and disappeared back up the hall.

"All right, well night you two," Tohru smiled and vanished into her room. It was quite bigger than the one she had at Shigure's. There was a large dresser, big enough to accommodate her clothing. She sat on her bed and sighed.

She then noticed two sliding doors on different walls. One she knew to be conjoined with Akito's room, which gave her the creeps, and the other she found out was to the garden. She decided to unpack her things before she went to bed. Luckily her things were brought up to the room.

(Morning)

Suddenly their lifestyles were different. Every morning Tohru had always made breakfast and school lunches for everyone, but here all of that was done by some one else.

The three of them sat around the dining table eating their breakfast. Akito was not present; he hadn't even shown his face all the morning. Yuki was actually glad with this.

"This is nothing compared to your cooking Tohru," Kyo said poking at his food. It was good but Tohru's food was excellent.

"Thank you Kyo," she smiled and took a bite of her food.

After they finished their breakfast they prepared to take off for school.

"Tohru!" squealed the blonde cross-dressing boy Momiji. Followed behind him was the rather handsome Haru.

"Good morning Momiji, Haru," greeted Tohru in her usual gentle tone.

"I heard you three moved here. That's just so great. Now we can have more fun together!" Momiji cheered, and then locked hands with Tohru as they all walked to school.

Haru walked behind Yuki, "So how are you going to deal with Akito?"

Yuki flinched by the mention of Akito's name. "I'm not sure I can do anything. I'm just going to try and avoid him the best I can."

"That damn Akito, I wish he would just choke on his words," spat Kyo. No one really reacted to his comment; they were use to Kyo's angry outbursts.

"So I assume you three were sent there because of what happened at school?" Haru pointed out.

"Yeah, what did everyone at school say after we left?" Yuki asked.

"Well the girls were delighted and the boys just sort of laughed," said Haru.

"Great," muttered Kyo and Yuki.

(School)

As the three of them walked into their class, everyone just stared at them. The boys were laughing and making jokes and the girls were giggling, blushing, and making kissy faces towards them.

Tohru walked over to where Hana and Uo sat while the boys slinked down in their seats.

"Hey Yuki, I guess we can now dub you Princess Yuki after yesterday," laughed one boy.

"What's that suppose to mean?" growled a Yuki-fan girl.

"It means that he's a flamer!" said the boy.

"No he's not! You don't know anything of the situation!" the girl said back.

"Do you?" smirked the boy.

"Well, no. Yuki tell him why you and red head were, well you know," the girl was looking at Yuki now, so was everyone else.

Yuki slunk deeper into his seat, he hated being in the spotlight. He didn't know how to explain why Kyo and he were naked in the middle of lunch.

A huge wave of guilt splashed over Tohru. It was her fault that this was happening. She just couldn't sit back and let them fall into the depths of classroom gossip.

From her seat she said, "They lost a bet to me."

Everyone whipped their heads toward Tohru. They were all wide-eyed and unconvinced. Tohru was a sweet, generous girl who does nothing of this caliber.

"What was the bet?" asked a random classmate.

Tohru quickly thought, "It was on a card game. I won, they lost."

Everyone pretty much accepted this excuse for the boys' behavior and left the subject cold.

(End of School)

Tohru and the boys met up with Haru and Momiji to walk home with after school.

"Thank you Tohru, back there in class," Yuki said.

"No problem! It was after all my fault," Tohru smiled. She had changed a lot since she met the Sohma family. She was still her self-less acting person, but now she had a little more spunk.

"AGH!" Kyo gasped as he was attacked by leeching cats.

They laughed at him as he tried to wrestle the cats off. Tohru scooped down and began to play with an orange tabby kitten. Kyo looked at her in a bewildered look. Her being so near to him made him warm in the face. She smelled wonderful. He had no idea where this was all coming from, but he just all of a sudden felt really attracted to her at this moment.

"Come on, we can't be late. Akito will be angry," Momiji chirped, breaking Kyo's trance.

They managed to shoo away the cats and make their way home.

"Tohru I want to show you around!" Momiji said enthused as they entered the Sohma courtyard.

"Sure Momiji, that sounds great, I'll see you two later," she said referring to Kyo and Yuki.

They watched Tohru and the giddy boy walked away with him pointing at everything.

"I don't know how she can be so happy all the time. Moving here is like jail," Kyo said now walking with Yuki and Haru.

"I know what you mean but it's something to admire," added Yuki.

"She's cute. Have you two made any moves on her?" Haru said plainly. Yuki and Kyo both jumped and looked at him.

"Of course not!" they shouted.

He laughed, "Do you two have any interest in her at all?"

They went quiet and then like gentlemen said, "Not at all."

"Right, well if you two don't mind I'm going to go make my own move," Haru smirked.

"WHAT! NO WAY!" exclaimed Kyo and Yuki.

"I thought you two have no feelings for her?"

"We don't but you still shouldn't go after her?" Yuki said.

"Why not?" Haru asked.

Kyo spoke up, "Because you couldn't have a relationship with her. Every time she hugs you, you would turn."

"There are many things I can do to her without her touching me," Haru grinned. Black Haru was starting to rear its head out.

Grossed out, Yuki and Kyo both punched Haru in the shoulder.

"You're such a pervert Haru. Now don't go touching Tohru or I'll go break your arm," Kyo meowed.

Haru took a high kick at Kyo. "Really and how do you suppose you're going to do that?"

Yuki walked away from them. He didn't want to be around Black Haru, who seemed to have a weird attraction towards him.

Yuki walked into his new home, still hearing the yells of Haru and Kyo.

He immediately saw Akito lying in his observing spot, a bird floating on his finger.

"Yuki, come here," he hissed softly.

Yuki reluctantly walked over to him, his hands a bit shaky.

Akito let the bird fly away and he looked up at Yuki, the sun bouncing off his face.

"I wish to know what they are fighting about, Kyo and Haru," Akito spoke in a hoarse whisper.

Yuki wasn't sure he should say, it would look horrible for their situation, but he couldn't lie to Akito, "Well it seems that Haru has taken an interest in Tohru and Kyo did not approve."

Akito raised his eyebrows, "In that girl? That's just laughable; I'll have to talk to Haru about where he puts his interests."

Yuki knew what happened when you had a talk with Akito about anything. He couldn't allow a talk to happen with Haru, "Honestly there's no need to talk to him about it. I think he was joking anyways."

"Do you?" Akito eyed him suspiciously.

"Yes I do," Yuki sternly said as best as he could. Akito looked at him long and hard.

"All right, I won't. You can go now," he turned from Yuki and looked out towards the sky.

Yuki quickly took his escape and went to his room. He sat at his desk and did his homework. An hour passed and there was a tap at his door. "Yes?"

Tohru entered his room with her dopey smile. "Hey Yuki, I was wondering what happened to Kyo. Did he and Haru get into a fight?"

"Yes they did," Yuki replied.

"Over what this time?" she giggled.

"The usual," he stated. He did practically lie to her, and he felt bad about that. Surely she shouldn't know about Haru and Kyo's reason for fighting.

"I see. Are you doing tonight's homework?" she asked leaning towards his desk looking at the papers.

"Yes I am, did you need help with it?" he knew Tohru wasn't the brightest student.

"Actually I do, but I have to get ready for work," she pointed out her work outfit.

"Well Miss Honda I'm sure I can help you after work," Yuki smiled.

"Thank you Yuki, by the way you can call me Tohru. You don't always have to be so proper, you know me well enough by now to be on first name bases," she tapped her head bandana.

"You're right Tohru," he smiled, "Have a good time at work."

She nodded with a grin and left. Suddenly the image of her from the bathing incident appeared into his head. He wasn't sure why he was thinking about it, but he just was.

He knew Tohru was cute, he thought that many times about her. His feelings for her were quite a battle in his mind. Because no matter how much he liked her, he could not be with her. It wasn't the whole zodiac thing, he could work around that, it was Akito.

Whenever Yuki had found some happiness in his life, Akito was always there to crush it down. So for this reason, Yuki had always kept his distance from anyone that he was attracted to, for their safety.

Yuki pushed back his thoughts of Tohru and finished his homework.

**A/N: **

**Ok well I didn't have time to re-read this, so if there are mistakes in it, I'm sorry. Also I probably won't update for a little over a week because I'm going out of town with the family. Sorry! But you can hang in there right? Thanks for reading/reviewing!**


	5. Chapter 5

Kyo was fast asleep on his preferable sleeping spot, the roof. The celestial moonlight beaming off his pale skin as he dreamt.

_Dream_

Kyo was opposite of his rival Yuki in a grayed out room. Yuki was bruised and bleeding from his nose. Kyo wore a wide grin as he began to pound into Yuki, "Don't have any smart ass remarks now do you rat?"

Kyo whipped around and kicked Yuki in the stomach sending him flying into a brick wall. Suddenly the room was filled with people roaring and chanting Kyo's victory. Kyo shook his hands into the air satisfying his triumph.

"Kyo, you did it! I knew you could!" Shouted Tohru as she embraced Kyo, who actually didn't change at all. He just wrapped his arms around her and smiled wildly.

"Finally, that damn rat got what had been coming to him for years," smirked the ecstatic cat as he walked away from the scene with his arm around Tohru.

"Oh Kyo you're just the best," Tohru said as she proceeded to wrap her thin arms around his waist. She lifted to her tip-toes and placed a short soft kiss onto Kyo's lips.

He was quite enthralled by this and pulled her into him and dived in for a long hard kiss.

"Kyo, do you love me?" Tohru asked taking a step back from him.

Kyo cocked his head, he tried to answer her, but his voice had gone from him. He moved his mouth in words that didn't form, he couldn't respond to her.

She repeated her question over and over again, but he still couldn't respond. Her form began to fade and then only he was left, but her question was still echoing through the emptiness.

His dream washed out and he shook himself awake. He sat up on the rough roof staring out into the dark. He was recalling his dream, it was vivid. He wondered why he would dream of something like that.

He ran his hand through his hair and yawned in a meow tone. Thinking over his dream he realized that he quite enjoyed it. Having Tohru hug and kiss him without turning into a cat was a very new exciting feeling for him. But the end of the dream was still a wonder.

He heard someone walking below and looked to find Tohru coming home from work. He observed quietly, unseen by her, until she disappeared into the home. He wrestled his thoughts about the dream trying to figure out what exactly was going on with him.

_Inside the Home_

Tohru quietly entered the house hoping not to disturb anyone. She felt ready to just dive into bed after a good hard-working time at work.

She made her way to her room, quickly changing into her pajamas. She was just about to get into bed when she remembered that she had homework. She remembered that Yuki offered her help on it. So she decided to go see if he was still awake.

When she got to Yuki's room she found that he wasn't there. She figured this was odd, but also thought maybe he was about visiting others.

She retreated back to her room. She figured she'd just do the best she could on it.

As she sat at her desk scrawling down ink she heard something in Akito's room. She passed it off as just a house noise, but she kept hearing it over and over.

She crept up to the sliding door that connected her room to Akito's. She was debating whether or not she should take a peek at what that noise was. She knew it was wrong to do it because it's none of her business, but curiosity got the best of her.

She cracked the door open just a smidge and looked into Akito's room. It was pretty plain, except the bed looks quite comfy. She figured it was because Akito was bedridden a lot. But she didn't really care about how the room looked; she wanted to find the noise.

She waited a while, trying to listen for the noise. She finally heard it. It sounded like a snapping noise. She couldn't figure where the source of it was. Suddenly the snapping noises had stopped.

A door in Akito's room slid open, emerged came a limping Yuki and a smirking Akito carrying a whip-like structure.

Tohru gasped quietly as she realized what had happened. She wanted to just go hurt Akito for what he had done. But she knew it would cause more trouble.

She saw Akito place a chilling hand on Yuki's shoulder. He whispered something into his ear and Yuki slowly walked out of Akito's room.

Tohru's eyes began to water, she felt so bad for Yuki. She shifted her balance in her feet and the floorboards beneath her creaked. She hoped that Akito hadn't heard her, but sadly his head had whipped in her direction.

She froze as his slanted eyes caught her peeping eye. He squinted at her as he let the whip fall into a pile on the floor. He made his way to the door and flung it open. Tohru flinched in tremendous fear.

Akito grabbed Tohru's hair and pulled her head to a tilt. "How dare you spy on me? You'll suffer my punishment."

Tohru was stunned with horror. Akito pulled her up against the wall, slamming her head against it. Tohru started shedding tears.

"Stop crying you little baby. It only will make things worse," hissed Akito as he through her onto the floor.

Tohru's hair sprawled over her face as she curled into a fetal position. Akito smirked and went over to pick up the whip. "You're going to learn not to spy on people."

He let the tip of the whip scratch against the floorboards as he strode over to Tohru.

"Please…don't," she whimpered.

"Do you think I'll allow you mercy?" he scoffed.

"No…but I think you're capable of it…" she titled her head up at him, strands of her hair falling to the side of her face.

Akito glared at her, "Well you must be naïve if you believe that."

He raised the whip above his head and lingered a few seconds to tease. Tohru jolted up to her feet and slapped Akito across the face.

Both were astonished by her actions, especially Tohru herself. Akito dropped the whip and placed his hand to his cheek and looked down dumbfounded at Tohru. She stood blank-eyed, not knowing what would happen now.

In a flash, Akito wrapped his hands around Tohru's neck. She gasped and tried to scratch his hands off, but to no avail. His eyes were filled with masked evil.

Tohru was losing conscious when suddenly Akito was thrown from her. She was too weak to stay awake and became unconscious.

**A/N:**

**Ok well this is a little action packed chapter, also short. Hope you guys liked it. Akito's mean isn't he. Haha.**


	6. Chapter 6

Tohru opened her eyes in a sudden rush. Her head ached, waiting for relief. She found herself in her bed.

"Tohru you're awake. Hey guys she's up!" Kyo exclaimed as he knelt down to Tohru. Kyo, Haru, Momiji, and Hatori came up to her bedside as well.

Tohru tried to sit up but Hatori said she needed to lie down for a little longer.

"What happened?" she asked rubbing her eyes.

"I found that damn Akito trying to kill you!" Kyo shouted with a clenched fist.

She had flashbacks just then about the night; Akito being aggressive with her and choke her. She felt her neck with her hands.

"That's right. I heard a noise in his room and just took a peek inside. I saw," she looked at Yuki, "You and him. He whipped you didn't he?"

Yuki got weak in the face, "That doesn't matter. Let's focus on what happened to you. Go on with what happened after I left."

She knew he didn't want to discuss this, so she let go of it and continued, "I made a noise and he saw me. He threw me against the wall and floor and he grabbed his whip to hurt me. But I slapped him before he touched me. That's when he snapped and started choking me. That's all I really remember."

Kyo frowned, "I heard the commotion from the roof. I ran in there and threw him off you. He started having breathing problems, that bastard. Yuki came in after that and fetched Hatori."

"Is Akito all right?" she asked.

"You shouldn't be concerned for him. He's lucky I didn't smash his head in," Kyo grunted trying to be all manly. Yuki just shook his head at the cat.

"Is Tohru going to be all right Hatori?" Momiji asked peeking his blond little head from the group of tall males.

Hatori smiled at Momiji, "She'll be just fine. Just as long as she gets sleep and isn't pushed to stress."

"Thank you Hatori for taking care of this. Honestly the whole thing was my fault. You should really go check on Akito. I'm sure his condition is worse since his physical state isn't always the best," Tohru said as she assured everyone she was fine. Hatori went along with her suggestion and went to tend to Akito.

Soon after a little visiting, Momiji and Haru left. Yuki and Kyo stayed behind to keep Tohru company.

"Thank you Kyo for well saving me," Tohru smiled gently.

Yuki cursed at himself. If only he didn't leave so quickly or if he had only went to check up on her. He felt like a total complete failure. Also he didn't like the fact the Kyo had shown him up in protecting Tohru. He didn't know why but he was flushed with jealousy. He wanted to be Tohru's hero.

"You should be more careful. I won't be around to bail you out of every trouble you get into," Kyo smirked.

"I know. I'm sorry I've cause all of you to worry. I feel terrible about this whole thing," she frowned a bit.

"You shouldn't feel sorry about anything Miss Honda, Tohru. Akito is a very impulsive person. His aggression is known to every Sohma, especially me," Yuki inputted to the conversation at hand.

"Yuki, I know Akito whipped you last night. That's the noise I heard. Why did he do that to you?" Nosy she was being of course, but she just had to know.

Yuki looked at Kyo trying to get him to leave. But Kyo looked just as interested so Yuki decided to tell both of them, "Well it wasn't the first time Akito has done that to me. I moved out of this place to avoid that very thing. He usually does what he does when he sees any independence in my personality. He wishes that every Sohma obeys him. I'm only one of the few that have dared to go up against him. I was young when I did this, very young. He's never been able to let go of it and won't stop until I'm completely under his control."

Tohru's eyes began to water, "Oh Yuki! That's horrible! No wonder you lived with Shigure and now you're back here where he can get to you the most. It's my entire fault, everything is. I've messed up so much."

"No Tohru, not at all. I knew one day I'd have to come back here. Akito's actions have nothing to do with you at all. He wishes everyone to be miserable because that is how he himself his. He's miserable every day and the only time he gets joy is when he causes other people's pain," Yuki spoke with such knowledge of the subject.

After awkward moments of no conversation at all the boys left so Tohru could get some sleep. But she couldn't sleep at all. She was wondering how Akito was doing. She always felt compassion for everyone, Akito included. Even though he did what he did, it doesn't change that he's still a person that somewhere has a kind heart buried beneath his anger and hate.

She got up from her bed, a little too quick because she got a tad light headed. She walked over to the very same door that she stood at the night before. She was pausing to open the door. Would Akito be ready to pounce on her right when she opened it? Did he have a lethal weapon by his bedside?

She pushed back all the If's that could happen and decided to see for herself. She slowly opened the door to Akito's room.

She found Akito sitting in his bed. His face was paler than usual and his breathing was loud and hoarse. He was awake and looking directly at Tohru with a confused look.

"Do you wish for death?" He asked amused. Tohru shook her head no and walked closer to his bed, but still kept her distance.

"Are you all right?" She asked with her hands clasped before her.

"I'm never all right you twit. Does it look like I'm doing all right?" he snapped at her.

She bit her lip, "Well I hope you do get better soon."

He was puzzled by Tohru, "Are you not going to kick me when I'm down? Yell at me for what I did?"

"Why would I want to do that?" she sounded so innocent and pure.

Akito was even more confused, "Because I hurt you last night; would have killed you if that damn cat hadn't interfered."

"Yes, you did hurt me. But I was snooping when I shouldn't. Normally people would just yell at people who do that, you resort to violence instead. I'm not one to hold a grudge, so I hope that we can put this behind us," Tohru said.

"Well you probably think you're so high and mighty for trying to be the bigger person here; you stupid little girl. Let me clue you in on how things go on around here. If someone angers me in any way, they pay. They don't go smiling around afterwards; they go around frightened I might pop up somewhere. I don't allow anyone to put my anger behind them. I want them to remember the pain and hurt forever so that they will never be cross with me again," he ranted.

"I see…it makes me sad that you don't wish to resolve the matter. But this is your home and I am your guest. So if you wish not to be any way civil about this then I will abide by your wishes. I just want you to know that I don't think you're as bad as you act. I know there's good in everyone; you're just refusing to allow the good in you to surface. Maybe one day you'll release it. I'll leave you alone now, hope you return to better health," she bowed out gracefully.

After she left, Akito was stunned. No one had ever said those things to him. It really disgusted him to think someone thought he could be good and also wished him good health. Usually everyone wished that he would die by a miserable death. This girl was showing him something very rare, someone who cared. It made him sick that she thought he could change, if he did he would lose his control over the Sohma's. He would not allow that to ever happen. He'd show her how terrible a person he truly could be and that no essence of good could ever linger within him.

_Tohru_

Tohru figured she would check on Yuki and see how he was holding up. She opened his door without knocking.

"Oh Yuki!" she exclaimed. Yuki was sitting on his bed with his shirt off, his back facing to her. His back was slashed with fresh red marks.

"Tohru?" He turned to see her shocked expression. She rushed over to his side and frowned.

"You should have these bandaged or sanitized or something!" she was trying to be somewhat helpful if that.

"Hatori is coming by later to put some special ointment on them. Please don't worry over them," he pulled a shirt on quickly.

"Yuki I wished I could do something to help everything," she sighed wallowing in sadness.

"You don't need to bother with anything. Now to change the subject, I called the school to let them know that the Sohma's and Tohru Honda would not be showing up for today due to the death of the family pet. So if anyone asks, Snuggles the Dwarf Hamster got eaten by a cat," Yuki smiled lighting up the room.

Tohru chuckled a bit, "All right. Yuki, can we go walk around outside, I really want some fresh air." Yuki agreed and they went to walk around in the garden.

_Garden_

Yuki held Tohru's hand as she walked, "Are you feeling well enough to walk Tohru?"

"You bet! I'm feeling a lot better, after all it wasn't that much of an injury," she smiled assuring.

Across the garden on the roof sat Kyo. He was feeling quite jealous seeing Yuki with Tohru. After last night he knew for certain he felt feelings for Tohru. Feelings of like and maybe love. He needed to find out how she felt; did she see him anymore than a friend? Does she like Yuki? It all plagued his mind with such torment.

He bounced off the roof and joined the two, "Tohru nice to see you up and about."

"Thanks Kyo, it's nice to be walking. Do you want to walk with us?" she asked.

Yuki wished him not to, Yuki wanted some time alone with Tohru. He himself was still trying to figure out his feelings for her. But Kyo accepted her offer and held onto her other hand and they walked side by side along the garden.

As the three of them talked and walked they were observed by Akito through his window.

He still was bewildered by the girl. When the rat and cat were around her they did not fight, but stayed calm and rational. He's heard from every other Sohma that has met her that she's quite a delight and wonderful person. That's one of the reasons he compromised with them living here. He was interested in finding out for himself how delightful she was and why every Sohma that meets her is drawn to her so.

Sure he was cruel to her last night but his intension was never to kill but only to scare. It was a simple test that he wished to see how she would react and it seemed she was basically apologizing for the incident. She certainly was a strange one and he looked forward to seeing how things would unfold in the Sohma household.

**A/N:**

**Ok well that's that! Hopefully you liked this chapter, sure nothing interesting really happened but it revealed quite a few things. Thanks for the reviews so far everyone!**


	7. Chapter 7

Preparing for school the next day was quite hard for Tohru. She had bruises of her neck and other random places all over her body. She tried her best to cover up the bruises with makeup, but you could still see a bit of purplish blotches.

Putting on the best smile she could, she walked out to meet the boys.

"Tohru!" Momiji cheered as he ran to say good morning to her. She happily joined in on the boy's good energy as the gang began to walk to school.

Momiji was skipping in the front, Kyo and Yuki were bickering in second, Haru was trailing behind them, and Tohru was lagging in last.

She was still a little worn out from all the events that had happened that week. She wondered if Uo and Hana would notice her bruises. She would just have to wait and see if they do.

With a sly grin Haru slowed his pace to be at Tohru's position. "How you feeling?" he asked smoothly.

A little startled she responded, "I'm perfectly fine and you?"

He stretched and put his hands behind his head and looked up at the sun, "Can't complain."

She smiled and then caught a real good glimpse of him. The sun was bouncing off the tip of his nose, giving shine in his eye. This just reminded her of how attractive the Sohma men were, which made her face a little pink.

Haru chuckled when he saw her blush. "Tohru who do you like?" he blurted out.

"What do you mean?" she felt awkwardness towards him in the few seconds that followed.

"Well everyone likes at least one person. Who do you like? They don't even have to go to our school."

Tohru paused. She really didn't know who she liked. She likes everyone really, but that wasn't the question. Haru wants to know who she would like to date, but she just didn't have an answer for him.

Suddenly Yuki and Kyo realized that Haru was alone with Tohru. Remembering Haru's likeness towards Tohru they jumped in to stop him from doing whatever he was doing.

"Just wondering Tohru, did you ever finish your math homework?" Yuki asked positioning himself between her and Haru.

"Oh my gosh! I totally forgot! Oh I'm so stupid! I'll get a zero for sure!" She exclaimed metaphorically kicking herself.

"That's all right you can copy mine," Yuki said pulling out his homework from his backpack.

Her eyes lit up. She never cheated before, but the way this week's been going she's up for change, "Thank you Yuki! I'll repay you with something when we get home. Maybe some cookies, or anything really." She took the paper and stuck it in her math book.

Kyo kind of trudged with the group. He wasn't quite good at math, so he couldn't help Tohru with that. He really wasn't good at any school subject; it's a wonder how he even was passing any of his subjects.

Finally they got to school. Haru and Momiji went their way while the cat, rat, and girl went to their room.

"Tohru are you all right? I heard about your hamster. I didn't even know you guys kept a pet," Uo said as Tohru sat between her two friends.

Tohru made sure her hair covered her neck, so not to alarm her friends.

"Yeah it was quite some tragedy. But I can't talk now, I forgot to do that math assignment and Yuki and letting me copy his," Tohru began copying.

"I can't believe you're taking hand outs. Tohru are you feeling all right? You've been acting strange lately," Uo said tapping her pencil on the table.

Tohru sighed rushing through her copying, "Look, something is going on with me right now, but I can't explain here. I'll tell you two at lunch."

Hanna and Uo looked at each other in confusion, and allowed her to finish copying.

_Lunch_

"So you're living at Prince Yuki and Carrot Tops family home?" Uo said in surprise. Tohru nodded and Hana went on about some vibration she was feeling from the girl behind her.

Tohru tucked her hair behind her ear and took a bit of her sandwich. Uo's eyes went wide.

"What the hell happened to your neck?" She shouted a little loud causing people around them to gawk.

Tohru quickly shielded her neck with her dark hair and looked down at her food.

"I fell…" she mumbled. Uo narrowed her eyes and flipped Tohru's hair away.

"Fell my ass! Those bruises look like they were made by a hand. Who did this to you? Is this why you weren't here yesterday?" Uo was quite enraged. How dare some one hurt innocent Tohru?

Tohru sat there in silence, ashamed that she couldn't tell her friends the truth about everything.

Kyo quickly ran up to the table. "Yankee stop making a scene. You're embarrassing her."

She growled at the orange haired boy, "You know who did this, don't you? Tell me or I'll punch your lights out."

Kyo's eyes widened and he took Tohru's hand, "Come on, we need to talk."

Kyo quickly whisked Tohru to one of the buildings roof. A place he hung out a lot.

He examined her neck, he didn't notice the markings before, she must have hid them well.

"I can't go on lying to my friends," she said sliding down to the ground.

Kyo scratched his head not knowing exactly why he brought her up here. Was this the right time to tell her he was in love with her?

Tohru looked up at him, "So what did you want to talk about?"

Kyo shifted his feet then sat down next to her, "I really don't know. I figured that you probably wanted to get out of there. You don't need everyone knowing your business."

"I guess," she murmured laying down and looking up at the sky. It was clear blue with little spongy white clouds.

She heard some foot steps and looked to find Yuki standing at the roof door.

"I figured you'd bring her up here," Yuki said as he joined the two.

Kyo was a little upset that Yuki had interrupted their alone time but was also glad because he didn't know what he was going to say to Tohru.

"Uo and Hana are good people," Tohru said quietly, "They don't deserve to be lied to everyday."

"Well you can't tell them the truth about everything, about us," Kyo said a little worried.

"I know, but I wish I could. It would make everything a lot easier," she frowned a little.

Yuki spoke up, "We know how you feel Tohru. I mean we've had to lie our entire lives to our friends. We have to sacrifice dating girls, going to dances, and basically everything. So you're not alone in this matter. You know that right?"

She nodded, getting herself to sit up, "Yes I know. But it's just that I care about them and don't want to see them get hurt over me."

Yuki placed a hand on her shoulder, "We won't let anything, or anyone hurt your friends. Will we Kyo?"

Kyo smiled, "That's right! Even if they are a little weird…what matters is that they're important to you. And we'll fight to keep them in your life."

Tohru smiled gleefully, "Thanks you guys. I really needed some comfort. Come on we got to get back before class."

_After School_

The rest of the day was awkward. Uo was a little ticked that Tohru was hiding things from her, but she would cool down soon. Hana really didn't she much, she never does.

Tohru slumped behind the group all the way home. She really was still in a rotten mood from lunch. Momiji tried to cheer her up but it only made her present a fake smile. Haru would have worked some charm on her, but Yuki and Kyo made sure he didn't go near her.

When they reach the Sohma home, they all went their separate ways again. Yuki invited Tohru to go visit with some people, but she declined. She was not up to any type of socializing.

She quickly went to her room, making sure not to make contact with Akito. That was the last thing she needed to deal with at the moment.

_Yuki_

"She seems pretty upset about the whole thing," Yuki said as he sat in Hatori's office.

"I see. Maybe I should talk to her about this. She might tell her friends about the Sohma's and we can't risk that anymore," Hatori said folding his hands in his lap.

Yuki bit his lip, "If you are going to talk to her Hatori, promise you won't tell Akito."

Hatori smiled warmly, "I promise Yuki."

"Thanks," Yuki said softly before leaving.

He walked under the pink pedals of trees worrying over Tohru. He just had to go see her, make sure she was doing all right.

He made his way through the rooms to Tohru's, so not to be stopped by Akito.

"Yuki? What are you doing here?" Tohru said as she sat crumpled under her covers.

Yuki observed that her eyes were glossy and her face was blotchy. She had been crying obviously.

"I'm worried about you. I just want you to be happy," Yuki said sitting in her chair.

"I am happy," she said unconvincingly.

"I know you're not. Otherwise you wouldn't be secluding yourself in here. I know your upset over Uo and Hana because you can't tell them. But remember we're all your friends too. You make all of us happy Tohru, and that's important," Yuki had gentle eyes.

Tohru looked down and then at Yuki, "I know that, but still. I want to make everyone happy."

"But you do. Uo and Hana are just upset right now, but they'll get over it. They love you and can't stay mad at you forever," he comforted.

Tohru sniffled, "True, yet I feel like they'll hate me forever."

Yuki went over to her and held her hand, "They won't, you'll see."

"Thanks Yuki," she smiled and couldn't help but hug him. He transformed into his adorable little rat form.

"Sorry Yuki, I couldn't help it," apologized Tohru as she scooped Yuki into her hands.

"That's all right, I would have done the same I suppose," he scratched his snout with his round tiny paw.

Tohru smiled, "Well I'll leave you until you get changed and all that. I'll be in the garden."

Feeling much better Tohru walked into the calming garden. She sat on one of the flat rocks and took deep breaths. The fresh air felt good against her skin.

Soon Yuki came out and joined her, "It's almost dinner time."

She pushed back her hair, "I know, but this breeze feels so good."

Yuki agreed. It was the perfect time of year for a cool breeze. But what made it even more perfect was that Tohru was there.

He knew his feelings for her were growing rapidly. He also could tell Kyo was growing some interest in her as well. Haru also has questionable motives. It would soon become a nasty battle for Tohru's affection, and Yuki planned to be on top of it.

**A/N:**

**Well hoped you all enjoyed this chapter. Nothing really interesting yet going on, but I promise the next chapter will have something exciting! Maybe some confessions or acts of love!**


	8. Chapter 8

School wasn't as bad as Tohru had thought it would be. Uo and Hana didn't even mention what had happened at lunch the day before. Tohru just figured that they had just cooled down, but really Yuki had talked with them before school and convinced them to forget about it for a while.

When they got home Momiji convinced everyone to play a game of musical chairs. Yes, very corny but Tohru thought it would be interesting, so the rest of the boys agreed to join in.

They nabbed Hatori to play the music. Honestly, how can anyone say no to Momiji?

The music started and they all began to chase around the chairs. First round over, Momiji sadly was cut from the musical team.

When the music ended the second time, Yuki failed to find a chair and sat on the sidelines with Momiji.

The third time the music stopped Kyo got snipped out. Leaving only Haru and Tohru, it's only natural that the cat and rat would get jealous of the cow.

"Prepare to lose girl," taunted Haru as they began circling the last chair like two hungry sharks.

"We'll see," Tohru said as her pace began to quicken.

Then the music stopped one final time, Haru and Tohru both dove for the chair. This was destined to have some sort of disaster. The two bumped into each other causing Haru to transform and break that chair.

"Oh no! I'm so sorry!" exclaimed Tohru.

Kyo and Momiji began laughing while Yuki just grinned entertained. Hatori sighed and picked up Haru's heap of clothes.

"Haru, follow me, you can get changed in my office," Hatori said as he walked away. Haru following behind, his hoofs clicking against the ground.

"Gosh, I feel so bad. It seems every time I try to do something with you guys, I end up making you transform," Tohru complained.

"That's all right, better you than someone random," smiled Kyo. Tohru smiled back and they all decided to go back to their respective homes for dinner.

Tohru snuck to where the kitchen was, she preferred to help make dinner not sit around and wait for it.

"Miss Honda," bowed one cook, her name was Rikku Sohma. The cook next to her bowed as well, his name was Liam Sohma, her brother. Apparently most the Sohma's that weren't part of the zodiac had taken jobs inside the Sohma environment.

Rikku and Liam are cousins to Hiro the smart mouth sheep.

"Hi Rikku, Liam. Thought tonight I'll help you two cook something up," Tohru put on an apron after the siblings agreed she could help.

For the first time in a few days she felt relaxed, cooking really was a time of peace for her.

After dinner Tohru went to her room to take a look at her homework.

When she entered her room she found a bundle of red roses on her bed.

"What on earth?" she picked up the roses and took in the nice scent of them. "Who could have given me these?"

She walked into the living room, where Kyo and Yuki were watching TV, and Akito was lazily gazing at his usual spot.

"Hey guys, do you know who left me these?" she lifted the roses in her hand.

Yuki and Kyo looked at each other and shook their heads.

"Someone left you roses? They must be really pathetic," Akito grinned not even looking at Tohru.

Tohru rolled her eyes and went back to her room.

"Must have been Haru," growled Kyo.

Akito lifted his eyebrows, "I thought you said I had nothing to worry about with Haru?"

"You still don't," Yuki said quickly changing the subject to the TV commercial that was displayed.

Akito felt more drawn into the situations that lay before him. Life around here was getting more interesting by the day it seemed.

After Kyo had retired to his room, Yuki had sought that tonight he would confess his feelings.

He tapped lightly on Tohru's door and slid it open after he was verbally allowed entrance.

"Hello Yuki, what can I help you with?" she smiled. She was in her pajamas reading a book she had picked up in the library that day.

"Can we talk?" he asked shutting the door behind him. Tohru nodded hoping nothing to serious was going on.

"Tohru you're an intriguing girl. You're kind, generous, and always thinking of others," he sat on her desk chair.

"Thanks Yuki, but where are you going with this?" She dog-eared her book and put it on her nightstand.

Yuki couldn't believe what he was doing. He had never told a girl his feelings. "Well, over the course of time I've been able to get to know the wonderful person you are, I've grown a liking towards you. Actually more than a liking, **Tohru, I think I might be in love with you**."

Tohru's eyes froze, did he say what he just said. Her heart began pounding and she became really confused.

"I don't know how I'm supposed to respond to that Yuki," she said.

Yuki bit his lip, "You don't have to. It's just that I couldn't hold my feelings in anymore. I just thought you should know my feelings for you and I obviously hope that you have the same feelings towards me, but if you don't that's fine to."

"Yuki, I really can't answer that right now, I'm confused about my feelings towards everything," Tohru got up from her bed and over to her flowers. "So did you give me these?"

Yuki shook his head, "No, I'm afraid I'm not the only one around here who has a liking towards you. Right now I think you might want some time alone so I'll leave." He exited quite quickly. He couldn't believe he just told her that he might be in love with her. He felt like an idiot, yet he felt relieved.

Tohru went into the garden, she needed some fresh air. She found the same flat rock she sat on before.

She kept wondering how on earth she missed any signals Yuki might have sent indicating that he liked her. She felt so naïve at the moment. She heard footsteps behind her.

"So Yuki has a thing for you?" hissed Akito. Tohru had chills run down her back.

"Where you spying on us?" she asked.

Akito slyly grinned, "It's not that hard to spy. Right?"

He was mocking the night she had spied on Yuki and Akito. "So does this mean I get to choke you?"

He laughed, "You could try."

She rolled her eyes, "Not even worth it."

"Oh I'm hurt," he sarcastically remarked. "Sure are being brave talking to me like that."

"Bravery has nothing to do with it," she stood up walking away from him, but he followed.

"So what are you going to tell Yuki?" Akito asked pursuing her.

Tohru whipped around and snarled, "That is none of your business."

Akito smirked with satisfaction, "I believe it is. This is my world you've stepped into and you have no say in whether I know something or not."

Tohru narrowed her eyes at him, "Why do you hate me so much?"

With ever a god complex, he stepped close to her, overshadowing her, "It's not that I hate you, not saying I don't, but it's the fact that my Sohma's would rather follow you then me. I can't allow that to happen. I'm slowly figuring out what makes them draw to you."

"It's called good character," snapped Tohru, she didn't know why she was getting angry. Was it because he was annoying her, threatening her, or was she angry the moment she stepped into the garden after her conversation with Yuki. "They would follow you if you were more caring. Every time they do something remotely bad in your mind, you punish them with physical and mental force. The reason they draw to me is because I don't care what they do or say, they are all wonderful people and I praise them for that. That's why they prefer someone like me over you."

Akito bared his teeth, "Yes, what you say may be true but I honestly don't care. Everything was under my control until you came into the picture showing them that normal people can understand them. You've made them all delusional."

"They are normal people, just with a little secret. Why must you always make them out to be monsters?" she spat staring him down.

Akito raised his voice, "Because that's what they are! You don't see people, humans, walking around protecting themselves from the flesh of the opposite sex because if they were to touch that flesh they'll turn into a member of the zodiac. That's not normal you twit, it's abnormal and y**ou're making their agony of living this life even worse**."

Tohru couldn't stand his insults any longer and dashed away back into her room. Akito felt accomplished for the night, he always enjoyed hurting someone's feelings before getting some shut eye.

Tohru sat under her covers, angry and upset. Akito had said such words that could be true, but she hoped weren't true. She hated how he could get under her skin, she wish she could beat him to a pulp.

Wait how could she think such things about another human being? She's never thought like this at all. Was living here getting to her? She felt like she was changing into a more aggressive person every day.

Small taps came from her main door. She feared it was Akito coming back to harass her, or Yuki wanting an answer. But it was neither; it was the loveable orange haired Kyo.

"Tohru, I heard what happened in the garden. I was on the roof. Are you all right?" He shut the door and sat on the edge of her bed.

"Yes, I'm completely fine," she badly lied.

"So Yuki told you he had feelings for you?" Kyo felt quite stupid for not telling her before that damn rat did.

Tohru nodded slowly, "Yes, he did. How could I not see that he liked me? I mean am I that dumb?"

"You're not dumb at all. He just was subtle I guess," Kyo patted her head friendly like you would to a dog.

"How can anyone like me at all? I'm such a mess," she whined.

Kyo wasn't thinking when he spoke, "How can anyone not like you Tohru? You're wonderful."

Tohru eyed him and her heart started pounding, "**Kyo…do you have feelings for me**. Like Yuki's feelings."

Kyo paused, should he really tell her now how he felt. She was already a mess over Yuki saying it, should he really tell her. "Tohru I'd be lying if I said no." But telling her would release his stress of holding it in.

Tohru took a deep breath, "For how long?"

"Well it kind of just hit me recently that I had feelings for you. I'm sorry to trouble you with this right now," Kyo tried to hold her hands but she moved them away.

"I see. Well right now I'm in a world of confusion and I can't really figure out my feelings for anyone right now. Maybe you should go to your room now," she watched as he got up without a word and walked towards the door. She caught her eyes on the collection of roses.

"Kyo, since Yuki didn't leave me those flowers, did you?" Kyo said no and left. Leaving Tohru with the still burning question of who left those flowers.

**A/N:**

**Wow I had such writers block when writing this, but I hope you all liked it. Thanks for the reviews everyone, it keeps me motivated! Whoot! Ok well I'll leave it at that. Maybe the next chapter will reveal who left the roses, or maybe not.**


	9. Chapter 9

"Where's Tohru?" asked Kyo as he entered the kitchen to grab some quick breakfast.

"She left an hour ago," Yuki said sitting in a chair while staring cold down at the floor.

Kyo looked at him and he took got the same stare, "Well it's not all your fault you know. I too told Tohru I liked her."

Yuki looked up at him, "How did you know I told her that?"

"Well I heard Akito talking to her about it in the garden," Kyo said gnawing on some bacon.

Yuki's eyes sunk, "Akito knows about it? That's not good news at all."

"Yeah I know, I'm sure he was spying on me when I told Tohru. What do you think we should do about him?" Kyo asked sitting in a chair next to Yuki.

Yuki glanced at him, "How am I suppose to know? Besides shouldn't we be thinking about what we're going to do about Tohru? She's obviously ignoring both of us."

"Yeah well it's her choice to ignore us. We can't make her talk to us, we just need to wait till she decides which one of us she wants," Kyo said maturely; relatively unusual for his character.

When they got to school that day Tohru didn't even acknowledge them. She just stared at the ceiling all class period. She promised herself that she would tell Uo and Hana together after school at Hana's house. No way was she going to bring them into Akito's home.

Yuki and Kyo didn't try to speak to Tohru. They knew she wanted time to think things through, so they figured they would wait until she felt it right to tell them her decision. Surprisingly they really weren't fighting over who Tohru would pick because they knew that they couldn't fight when it came to her. Everything about her was the opposite of wrath and physical fighting.

Lunch came and went; still the boys and girl did not speak a word. Then the end of the day emerged. Tohru had told Momiji earlier that she would be going to Hana's after school. Passing this on to Yuki and Kyo sent them into even more anticipation.

"When do you think she'll tell us?" Kyo asked walking with the now sad little group of four zodiac boys.

"How should I know? Just be patient," Yuki responded as he slipped his hand into his pocket. He touched a jewelry box that contained a wonderful necklace. He planned on giving it to Tohru sometime soon.

"Excuse me but what exactly are you two waiting to here from Tohru?" questioned Haru who felt out of the loop. Yuki and Kyo looked at each other hoping the other would tell him.

"They told Tohru they 'loved' her," squealed Momiji in a childish tone.

"How'd you know that?" snapped Kyo. Momiji explained that Tohru had also told him about last night.

"Hmmm… Well seems you two have screwed up. Maybe I should go to this Hana's house and comfort the poor little dear," Haru grinned.

Kyo laughed, "First off you don't know where Hana lives and second if you did you wouldn't be able to find it with your poor tracking skills."

This insult brought the never welcomed character Black Haru. He swung at Kyo's shoulder and knocked him to the ground. Kyo got up and began to strike back. Both almost equal in combat they continued fighting in the street.

"Maybe you two should cool it, people are starting to stare," spoke Yuki looking about himself. People were stopping what they were doing and just standing looking at the two strange looking teenage boys fighting.

Haru looked at Yuki and got close to his face, "I know something that would make them stare even longer." Haru tried to kiss Yuki but Kyo grabbed him by the color and through Haru to the ground.

Momiji know piped up, "Yuki's right! What if Akito finds out about this? We can't draw any more attention to us."

Kyo, as usual, had blocked any outside noise. Haru though heard Momiji's pleas and returned to regular Haru.

"Why do I have a sudden head ache?" Haru asked rubbing his throbbing head. He then looked at Kyo who looked like he was in a fight and in a guard stance. "Black Haru?"

"Yeah, come on we got to get home," Yuki said and they all continued the road home. The audience they seemed to collect disappeared just as soon as they came.

"Haru you like Tohru to?" Momiji asked walking on his tippy-toes. He felt so tiny compared to the other boys.

Haru turned to the rabbit, "Yes I do. Looks like I have no competition though." Yuki and Kyo glared at him.

Momiji tilted his head childishly, "Well what about Black Haru? Does he like Tohru? Because it seems he likes Yuki still."

"I honestly don't know. It's possible he could like her, but then again he could like Yuki over her," Haru said, he never looked at it that way. How could he ever have a relationship with Tohru if Black Haru didn't like her over Yuki?

"Ha, you think Tohru would take you if only half of you like her?" Kyo mocked.

"You think she'll take you? You're always rude to her and annoyingly hot-headed," Haru retaliated.

"Did you guys ever think she might not choose any of you?" Momiji chirped in.

They realized that option had never occurred to them. Would she really turn all of them down? Well she really couldn't turn Haru down since he hadn't told her.

"Well at the moment we have to agree that Haru has the upper hand here. Giving her those flowers really seemed to entrance her," Yuki added.

Haru gave them a weird look, "What do you mean? What flower?"

Kyo rolled his eyes, "Don't lie, we know you left Tohru those roses. Sly trick there."

Haru shook his head, "I don't know what you two are talking about. I never gave Tohru any flowers."

Kyo and Yuki looked at each other. If not Haru, then who had given Tohru those flowers? Was it another secret admirer? Another Sohma?

The four boys finally got to their destination.

_Hanna's House_

"So Yuki and Kyo have the hotts for you?" Uo said in an amused tone.

Hanna sat down a tray of tea and cookies and spoke while watching herself grab a cookie, "I always felt some odd vibrations with those boys."

"I don't know what to do. I'm not sure if I like one over the other and if I choose one of them then that would just cause more separation. We've gone so far with their relationship; this would just be a permanent set back," Tohru griped.

Uo stirred her tea, "Just don't choose either of them if you think it will hurt them."

"Yes, that is the best thing to do if you wish to keep things peaceful," Hana said agreeing with Uo's idea.

"I don't know. Sure I care about their feelings, but what about mine?" Tohru snapped off half a cookie in her mouth.

"Well what are your feelings Tohru?" Uo asked. Tohru looked down at her tea cup, holding it in her hands. What were her feelings towards Yuki and Kyo? Was one more important than the other?

"I'm feeling confusion from Tohru. It seems she doesn't know what her feelings are," Hana said in a monotone. Sometimes Tohru swears that Hanna is reading her mind sometimes.

After another hour passed by Tohru figured she should walk home before it got too dark.

She always got paranoid walking home at sunset. The small bursts of winds that came every so often to push fallen leaves always sent chills up her spine. She almost never could walk alone at this time of day and not feel like someone is watching her.

When she was halfway home she got those eerie feelings. The wind was whispering her name in a harsh tone. Then she could hear light footsteps behind her. She picked up her pace without looking behind, but the other pair of steps also hastened.

When she turned at a corner she whipped around to hit the person with her school bag. She stopped her thrust in mid air when she saw who the target was.

"Aren't you hostel today?" cooed Akito. His voice carried bitterly along the cool breezed.

Tohru almost choked on her heart pounding so rigid, "What are you doing here Akito?"

"Well you never came home and I got worried," he said sarcastically.

"How'd you know where to go?" Tohru questioned pulling her bag to her side.

"I checked you out once you become a holder of our secret. I tracked down where all your family and friends live, so I can always know where you are," he said in a superior nature.

"That's a little psychotic," she began to walk away from him not in a worse mood.

He followed her footsteps and continued to talk in the same tone, "Maybe, but if anyone is psychotic it's you. You're pulling the heart strings of three of my little Sohmas and I just can't have that."

"Three? Don't you mean two?" Tohru asked now feeling weird walking around with Akito stalking her.

"Oh did you not know? Haru also has feelings for you. I guess he couldn't muster them up like the other two. He's always been somewhat weak," Akito walked gracefully with his hands behind his back.

Great. Like Tohru needed more people to answer to. "Why are you here?"

"Why are you?" He asked raising his eyebrows.

Tohru held her hands in firm fists, oh how he aggravated her. "I'm here because they are my friends."

"Is that all they'll ever be? Friends?" to this Tohru turned around again and glared at him.

"That's none of your business," she spoke now with poison in her girl voice.

Akito smirked, "So that means you haven't decided yet."

Tohru quickly swung her bag at Akito and thumped him across the head. Akito responded by grabbing her wrist and twisted her arm around her back like a cop would.

He put his lips next to her ear and whispered, "If you ever lay a hand on me again, I'll make you hurt so much that you'll wish you were dead." He rudely began to grope her until he felt well enough to let her go.

Tohru ran for dear life. She dropped her bag along the way somewhere. She just wanted to go somewhere safe. She found herself on a familiar street that led to a memorable home.

She ran to that home and quickly entered the household.

"Shigure!" she called out collapsing onto the living room couch.

Shigure popped his head into the room, "Tohru? What are you doing here?" He asked then evaluated the state of the girl and quickly went to comfort her. "What happened?"

There Tohru spilled at the events that led up to that moment; everything about the boys and Akito's sexual assault.

Shigure phone Hatori and explained what Akito had done. Soon Hatori showed up at Shigure's house.

Shigure led him to where Tohru was. She looked a mess. Her face was swollen from crying and she was still trembling.

"Tohru, I'm sorry for what Akito has done. But I regretfully have come here to take you back there," Hatori frowned as he stood above the tortured girl.

"How can I go back there after what he did? I can't even face Yuki or Kyo let alone Akito," she sounded like a wounded puppy. She felt gross after Akito had touched her so inappropriately. All she wanted to do was wake up from this nightmare, but that was impossible for all of it was real.

Hatori stood perfectly still, "Yes I've learned of the situation you have with the boys. I'm sorry that this is all happening to you."

"I just wish that I could forget everything everyone has said to me in the last few days. I wish that things could just go back to normal," she whined in her hands as she broke down again into sobs.

Hatori was now grim in the face. Memories of his lost love flashed through his head. Her depression after the incident with Akito led him to erasing their love and memories from her mind. Was he going to have to erase this girl's memory to save her from the fate of depression and misery?

Shigure knew what was on Hatori's mind; he could tell how tempting it was for him to help Tohru with forgetting this mess.

Tohru said quietly looking up at the doctor with glossy eyes, "Hatori? I think you should erase my memories."

**A/N:**

**Well hoped you guys enjoyed that chapter, I was too lazy to re-read it so there's probably minor mistakes here and there. Cliffhanger much? I guess Akito got a little carried away, but oh well. Keep up the reviews and reading! Thanks!**


	10. Chapter 10

A few hours after Tohru's break down at Shigure's, Hatori had convinced her that she needed to return. He promised that he would speak with Akito and try his best to have him leave her alone. They both knew no matter what he said, Akito would always live to torment her.

"She's back, Tohru's back," Kyo said with excitement to Yuki. They both had been waiting all day for her to return. Before Hatori left to Shigure's he had explained what had happened to Tohru.

The two love sick boys ran to the girl they longed for.

Tohru formed a quant little smile for them as the two came towards her.

"Tohru are you all right? Hatori told us what happened," Yuki's voice was filled with concern and regret. Had he not told Tohru his feelings practically none of this stuff would have happened.

She nodded saying she was fine for now. They parted from Hatori and led Tohru to her room.

"If you two don't mind, I'd like to have some alone time," Tohru said as she entered her room and closed off herself from the outside world.

She curled up on her bed and silently cried to herself. She only agreed to come back because she still had an obligation to tell the boys her decision. She watched the connecting door to Akito's room. If she saw one movement of it, she would dart away as soon as possible.

Setting her fear of Akito aside she began to think of the three boys. Yuki, the first Sohma she ever new, the one who took her in after he found out she was living in a tent. Kyo, the stubborn cat; before she ever met him she always had a soft spot for the cat that was excluded from the zodiac. At first he was rude and aggressive, but now his behavior has changed dramatically. And Haru, the schizophrenic of the three, whose nice side is sweet and pleasant but his second side, is rather harsh and angry.

Yuki, Kyo, and Haru had all easily chosen Tohru as their obsession, but why couldn't Tohru find one of them to be her own. Could her feelings only go as far as friendship, or as much a courtship?

If she was to choose one of the boys, the other two would get into a fight. If she was to choose none of the boys then they would probably blame each other and still fight. There was no win-win situation here. No matter what move she made, it would end up in a loss.

But whether she chose someone or not was still undecided. The more she thought about her feelings for the boys, the more she realized that she possibly did have loving feelings towards them.

When it came to Yuki, she loved his gentleman like manor and composure. He always greeted her pleasantly and was loved by all their peers. He was truly an admiration.

Kyo is the opposite of Yuki. He was rarely ever gentleman like, pleasant, or loved by any of the peers. But she loved how adorable he was when he got defensive. He shared storied about his past with her and allowed himself to become vulnerable when she was around him.

Haru, the younger of the two was Yuki and Kyo rolled into one. Regular Haru was the essence of Yuki and Black Haru was the flame of Kyo. Plus Haru is rather good looking and mature looking for his age. His direction skills are poor, but his heart has always been kind, well as long as he didn't turn into Black Haru.

Her mental combat was interrupted by someone screaming outside the home. She went to see what was going on.

"How could you do this to me? We're meant to be Kyo! I knew the moment I found out she was living with you that you loved her!" Kagura screamed as she chased Kyo around a tree.

"Kagura leave me alone! You crazy girl!" He shouted as his fear of her shout throw his veins.

"CRAZY!" Kagura snatched Kyo by the leg and began to twirl him around like a jump rope.

Tohru walked over to where Yuki was watching the scene, "How did she find out about it?"

Yuki smiled, glad Tohru was standing so close to him, "Akito."

Kagura threw Kyo against the tree trunk. The anger in her eyes disappeared.

"Oh Kyo, what happened? Who did this to you?" She knelt next to Kyo. He was bruised and caked in dirt. He shrugged Kagura off him.

"Leave me alone," he growled as he began to walk away from her. She cried out to him and began to follow him.

Tohru frowned. She had forgotten the Kyo-Obsessed Kagura. Kagura had promised herself to Kyo since they were kids. Kyo though ignored it all.

"Tohru I feel awful for putting you in harms way with Akito. If you never knew me you wouldn't have to go through any of this," Yuki looked into the sky.

"Don't feel bad Yuki. I'm glad I know this family and I wouldn't trade anything in the world to have that taken away. And as far as Akito goes I'm sure what he did has nothing to do with any of you," she smiled and left to return to her room.

Yes, she was almost positive that Akito's actions were motivated by her and her alone.

She sat at her desk writing out that night's homework. Luckily it was English and not Math.

A rush of movement got her attention. The connecting door slid open and Akito emerged into her room.

Vines of alarm spiraled up her body. She quickly escaped from her desk and stood in a blocking position.

"What a greeting," he smirked as he leaned against the wall.

Tohru stood completely still, controlling all her impulses to run.

"Do you fear me yet?" he hissed, his snake eyes glooming into hers.

She parted her lips, pausing to speak, "If you wish to hear that I fear you, then yes. I fear you physically. But mentally you will never have me locked away."

He approached her, "Oh really?" He circled her, only his breath lingering on her skin.

"Do your worst Akito. But remember you will never have any mental control over me," she followed him with her eyes when he moved in front of her. "I still pity you."

He grabbed her throat viciously and rammed her against the wall, it all felt like a repeat.

"You pity me? That's still a laugh. Would you still pity me as I ravish every inch of your body, hours on end? Would you still pity me as I murder your weak friends? Could you still pity me as I bury your pathetic body in the floorboards of my room? Tell me girl, could you pity me then?" He squeezed her throat with vigorous strength.

She clawed at his hands ignoring his words. She willed herself not to allow him to break through her mental barrier. She wished that she wasn't as weak as she was.

She flailed her legs around trying to distract him, but he was persistent in his actions. She clasped her hands around his neck, wringing as hard as she could.

They both were gasping for what little air they were allowed. Tohru's strength was failing quickly and she did what any self-respecting woman would do, she kneed him where the sun doesn't shine.

He fell over, releasing Tohru and moaned in anger and pain.

Tohru ran into the hallway, entering quickly into Yuki's room.

"Tohru? What's wrong?" Yuki said in full attention.

"Akito, he attacked me again," Tohru was taking in sharp breaths that hurt her chest.

Yuki's resentment towards Akito had blossomed into fury.

"That's it, head Sohma or not he can't do this to people. It's time I finish this once and for all," Yuki sounded so different. He sounded like a rugged soldier in a war.

"No Yuki, please I can't let you get into a fight with him," Tohru humbly gripped his wrist and had pleading eyes.

"Fine, but it's not safe here, and it never will be till he's dead," Yuki was really getting aggressive, something he rarely ever did.

"It might not be safe but we're sentenced here," Tohru positioned herself between the door and Yuki incase he jolted out the door.

"No, he sentenced us for his pure pleasure. He doesn't own me, you, Kyo, or anyone. I moved out of here once to escape him, and swore I'd never live here again. I came here for you, and if you wish not to stay here any longer I promise we'll leave. With or without Akito's blessings," his words were strong and promising.

Tohru's heart began to beat softly, "Yuki, if we leave he will hunt us down and erase my memories for sure. We can't leave, it's too risky."

"If we continue to stay here he'll hurt you again. I can't allow that to happen. I care a great deal about you Tohru and I won't allow any harm to come to you any more," He pushed her hair aside and kissed her passionately.

He converted into a rat seconds later, his clothes tumbling around him.

Tohru was quite overwhelmed with his kiss. She felt such emotions rush through her.

"Tohru pack your things tonight, tomorrow after school we're leaving to this place I know. I can't say how long we'll be there and we'll have to take a few months off from school. We can take makeup classes when we get back. I promise Tohru, I won't allow your well being to be in jeopardy ever again," squeaked the grey mouse.

Tohru half smiled, "But what about my friends. I can't leave for months; I'd have to tell them why."

"No, if you tell them you only put them in harms way. I'm positive Akito will know if you said something to them. Just keep this to your self," he changed into his human form again. Tohru didn't flinch; his changing was not a rare sight. He slipped into his clothes.

"What about Kyo, and everyone else. I couldn't bear to leave them behind. It feels like I'd be abandoning them," wept Tohru.

Yuki blew out a gust of breath, "If you want, Kyo can come, but no one else. Haru has lived here before us and I'm sure he can manage without us."

Tohru nodded. She left Yuki's room and went to find Kyo; she knew he'd be on the roof.

"Kyo?" she whispered. Kyo was lying on the roof, basking in the night's aura.

"Tohru, what is it?" He turned to her as she joined him.

"We're leaving, Yuki and I. I want you to come with us," the words flowed out better than she expected.

When Kyo didn't speak she continued, "Yuki says he knows a place we'll be safe. We're leaving tomorrow after school. We might be gone for months, so you'd need to pack everything you have tonight. You can't tell anyone of this either."

Kyo finally reacted to her words, "Has he told you where?"

"No, he doesn't want to risk anyone hearing it. So are you going to come with us?" She already knew what his answer was.

"Yes, I'll go. If I didn't, who'd keep that rat off you?" He sneaked a little joke into his words. Tohru smiled and nodded.

"Will you come with me to my room? Akito and I got at it again and I just don't want to be alone if he comes back," she rubbed her hand against her soar throat.

Kyo agreed and followed her into her room. No sign of Akito.

She began to pack her things once more.

"Tohru, have you had any thought about what I told you?" Kyo asked swiveling in her desk chair.

Her motions slowed down as she folded her clothes, "I have yes."

Kyo looked at her in surprise, "And?"

She set the folding material down and looked at him, "I'm still confused about it all. I do have feelings for you Kyo, but yet you aren't the only one I care for in that way. I don't know when I'll figure out my feelings."

Kyo said nothing to this and changed his glance to a bare wall. Tohru continued her packing and folding.

After Tohru was done packing she slid her suitcase under her bed and followed Kyo into his room to help him pack.

"There all done," smiled Tohru as she shut his suitcase.

Kyo smiled and put it in the closet.

"Kyo would you mind sleeping in my room tonight? I don't want Akito to sneak in and strangle me while I sleep," Tohru had never asked any boy to sleep in her room before, but this matter was important.

Kyo gladly agreed, grabbed his pillow, and walked back to Tohru's room with her. When they got in there, Yuki was standing there.

"So have you finished?" he asked. Tohru nodded. Yuki smiled, "Good. I checked Akito's room and he's not in there. I think he went to Hatori's."

The cat asked the rat, "So why is it that we don't leave tonight?"

"Well Akito would find out we're gone before we could actually put some distance between him. He would easily find us. Besides we have to notify our school and Tohru needs to tell Hana and Uo that she won't be around for a while. The last thing Tohru needs is her friends investigating in Akito's territory," Yuki explained.

Kyo crossed his arms in annoyance of Yuki.

Yuki noticed the pillow in Kyo's hand and questioned about it.

"He's sleeping in here tonight. I asked him to because I'm afraid that Akito will come in here and finish me off," she said.

"Well if he's sleeping in here, then so am I," she marched out and came back with a pillow and a blanket.

Tohru chuckled, "Fine, but you two are sharing the floor." She said a final thanks to them and they went to sleep.

Morning came soon; their hidden agenda was still in motion.

They sneaked their suitcases around the eyes of anyone that passed and walked to school. They didn't wait for Momiji or Haru; they could risk them knowing just yet.

When lunch came, Tohru explained that she would be gone for a while to her friends. They wondered why she didn't know how long and what could keep her possibly for months. Tohru lied and said that one of the Sohma's relatives was sick and that the boys needed to go spend her final days with her. They asked Tohru to accompany them and she agreed.

This was kind of an elaborate lie, but they bought it. Thankful Tohru ate her lunch, but not peacefully. Haru had come up to her table and whisked her outside of the cafeteria.

"Tohru, I know you know about how I feel," Haru said.

"Yes I do and I'm flattered but Haru I really don't know all too well. Yes one day I'd like to get to know you, but as friends. You're younger than me and it's just not a match. You'll find someone else, I promise," these words were a surprise to her. She hadn't ever planned on rejecting Haru, she didn't even decide that. But somehow that's what her mind told her to say.

"I see…" he lowered his head. Then suddenly his voice went deeper and more aggressive, "You're such a tease. You prance around looking all cute, luring guys to you and then throwing them to the sharks. You're probably real proud of yourself."

"Excuse me? Are you all right Haru?" Tohru knew what was happening. Black Haru was creeping out.

"Like you care. I gave you those damn roses you know? Pathetic, you're not even worth it," he glared at her then walked away.

Tohru couldn't believe how Haru had just treated her. She knew now why she had rejected him. He was unstable.

School went by fast. Tohru, Kyo, and Yuki all began to move the opposite way they were suppose to go.

"Now that we're on our way, I'll tell you where we're going," he paused and then continued, "There's this woman, a Sohma. She was expelled years ago, when I was a boy, from the Sohma family for her practice of witchcraft."

Kyo stopped and looked at him, "You mean Kaori Sohma, that crazy woman?"

"Crazy?" Tohru looked puzzled. Was her salvation with a crazy person?

"She's not crazy, she's just misunderstood," defended Yuki.

"Like hell! When I was little she tried to expel my other side into the afterlife. She killed Kagura's cat!" Kyo exclaimed.

"Kaori does have strange methods, but Akito would not think to look there for us. He thinks he kept her location a secret," Yuki explained.

"Exactly how is it you know where she lives?" Kyo said hastily.

"When she was ordered to leave she was placed in a Sohma home in the mountains. No one was supposed to know where she was going except Akito. Remind you he was young at the time and a little careless. He called a cab to bring her to the mountain home; I was listening on the other line. The location was burned into my memory, so that's how I still remember it today," his explanation was a little long but it got the point through.

"So Kaori, she's a witch?" Tohru asked yet another question.

Yuki smiled, "Not really, she claims she is, but I have to reason to believe it."

They walked to the subway, planning on taking a tram to the mountainside than walking the rest of the way.

While they stood waiting for the tram something unthinkable happened.

"Are you trying to leave with your lover?" cried a voice.

They turned to find a steaming Kagura glaring at Kyo.

"How did you find us?" Kyo asked.

"So you're not denying it!" she yelled causing people to look at them.

"Kagura, Yuki's here to. If I was going somewhere to be alone with Tohru, he wouldn't be here," Kyo said annoyed.

"Sure, I see how it is. Tohru I thought you were my friend!" Kagura began to sob.

"I am Kagura. Kyo isn't my lover, neither is Yuki. We're just taking a little trip," she tried to comfort the hysteric girl.

"Is that true Kyo?" she looked at him with hopeful eyes.

"Yeah," he murmured.

Her face lit up and she wrapped her arms around Kyo, "I knew it! I knew you never loved her! You only pretended to so I would get jealous. How can you be so cruel? I forgive you though!" She hugged him and wouldn't let go.

He would have loved to tell her that he did love Tohru, but he didn't want a beating at the moment.

"So Kagura how exactly did you find us?" Tohru asked curiously.

"I hid a walkie-talkie under one of the roof tiles. I heard your conversation and followed you guys from the school to here," she looked up at Kyo, "Why are you guys leaving anyways?"

The two boys looked at each other then Tohru.

Tohru went to explain, but Yuki got there first, "Akito has been hurting Tohru and he's abusing his power. So we're going into hideout and you're going to have to come with us now. You know to much as it is and we can't risk Akito getting the information out of you."

"What!" shouted Kyo in protest.

Kagura slipped out of the picture for a moment, and then returned with two suitcases, "I was hoping you guys would invite me. This is going to be so much fun!"

"Yes…so much," growled Kyo. Tohru just laughed and explained where they were going.

The tram finally came and people began to file in. Kagura made Kyo offer to carry her bags and she clung to his side. Yuki put forward his request to haul Tohru's things, but she declined.

Soon the now four traveling companions were off on their newfound voyage.

**A/N:**

**Wow, well this is probably one of the longest chapters in this story. Hoped you like it. School started up for me so I probably won't be able to update as much as I have. Thanks again everyone for reviews and encouragement. Hopefully this chapter satisfied your hunger for a bit! Also I really didn't feel like re-reading this whole thing, so if there are mistakes, sorry but I am human. D**


	11. Chapter 11

The tram was quite packed, four seats to on each side. This was a complete possible danger zone for the three zodiac Sohma's. Someone could easily trip and fall onto one of them. So they found four seats in the way back.

They sat in the most logical order: Yuki by the window, then Kyo, then Kagura because she refused not to sit next to anyone but Kyo, and then Tohru because if someone fell on her she wouldn't change into anything and she couldn't make Kagura change at all, so it was a perfect arrangement.

"Kyo I made some of your favorite dishes for lunch!" Kagura said with stars and hearts in her eyes while holding out a little box of assorted foods. Which were either burnt or discolored.

Kyo winced with disgust and tried to reject her food, which only made Kagura jam it all down his throat, every last crumb. Kyo turned a little green and kept his head between his knees for a long time. Kagura claimed it was the bumpy train that was making him ill, but everyone knew it was her acidic meal.

Yuki stared blankly out the window, watching the blurry images whiz by. Tohru observed him for only a few moments before changing her direction to the other passengers on the tram.

She saw a mother scolding her young son for kicking the chair in front of him; A man in an oversized overcoat clutching his brown briefcase as if someone was going to snatch it up; A rather large man and woman yelling at each other about how late they were for a wedding rehearsal; and then a wise-looking old man who seemed to be mumbling to himself. Tohru wondered if she and her companions looked as foolish as these people, she had no doubt that they did.

"Next stop, Canyon River Trail! Next stop Canyon River Trail!" said the nonchalant voice over the tram's speaker.

"That's where we get off," Yuki stated. Probably the only thing he said the whole time they boarded.

Kyo had finally begun to feel better and was able to gather his things, as did mostly everyone else.

The tram's speed declined and halted to a rather rough stop. Tohru silently said goodbye to the interesting passengers on the tram in her head. She hoped maybe she could see them once again.

The four gathered into a little group at the tram station.

"Ok, where to now you damn rat?" Kyo asked. He really wasn't in a good mood and Kagura's clinginess was not helping one bit.

"Well now we have to go to Mount Quincy Hue and find a hidden trail that leads to the house," Yuki talked like it was an easy amount.

"There? Of all places there? Quincy Hue is always in the news about lost travelers found savagely eaten by wild animals!" Kyo exclaimed imagining being ripped apart by lions and bears.

"There's nothing to fear. We are the animals, remember? Besides that only happens when the travelers get lost and find themselves in the Massacre Forest. We'll be on the opposite side of the mountain, so stop being a crybaby," Yuki said rolling his eyes at Kyo.

Kyo growled and they barked on about who exactly was the crybaby. Tohru and Kagura just laughed at them and begged that they should start making their way to Kaori's. Agreed they left.

No one, not even Yuki realized how long a walk it would be till the reached the beginning of Quincy Hue. Tohru, being the weakest of the bunch was lagging the most. They all had to slow to her pace, which she didn't notice at all.

"Yuki how is it you know if we're going the right way?" Tohru asked pushing back all her back pain from walking.

"I memorized the map of this area. There's no way we could get lost," Yuki proudly stated. Kyo glared at Yuki and continued to walk, with Kagura now as an arm accessory.

Finally they reached the opening of the mountain. There were some people dressed as hiker's walking around chatting about good spots to climb. The four kids didn't go unnoticed, several people asked if they were lost or needed a tour guide.

The four slipped away from the naked eye and began their way through the mazes of the mountainsides.

"Kyo you're so cute when you get all sweaty!" squealed Kagura. Tohru and Yuki laughed at Kyo's expense.

"The hidden trail is somewhere around here. I found a map and directions to this place in one of the ancient Sohma texts. Akito never realized the location was in one of the books, I don't think he's ever touched a book in his life," Yuki said glad that he was finally away from Akito once again.

"Exactly what are we looking for?" Tohru asked looking at her surroundings.

"Well the directions were all riddles, I don't know why. But the riddle for here said 'Along the path a warrior tree slices through its enemy's rock and marks it with the unbreakable seal of Sohma. Next to the war zone is the mountainside crying out for protection. Vines of hope covered its cries and created a river of green to the blue path.' So I think we're looking for a rock with a tree growing with through it," Yuki said, he was glad he had memorization skills.

"That could be anywhere. The possibility of a tree growing through a rock could be great in numbers," Kyo remarked. Kagura agreed, of course.

For what seemed like hours the bunch traveled the mountain side, not seeing any spliced rock and tree. Finally though, they came upon a tilted tree that looked lick it was sitting on the rock. Quickly they looked at the mountainside and saw clumps of vines twisted along it. They followed the vines and saw they lead down the mountainside onto the path and down into the forest.

"All right we found the spot but the vines lead into a pretty steep part. How can we get down there without getting hurt?" Tohru asked.

"Easy, you just hold onto the vines. The ground is angled enough so that we won't pull the roots out," Yuki once again was the knowledgeable one.

One by one they climbed down carefully until the ground leveled. They followed the vines that stopped at a river bank.

"Ok so this must be the blue pass," Kyo said looking at Yuki for further riddle directions.

Yuki searched in his mind for the next riddle, "Bunnies hop as you must do if you don't wish to be at the bottom of the blue. Once you've escaped the wrath of the blue path you'll find yourself on moldable ground."

"So we have to get over the river I assume," Kyo said. He stepped a few steps backward intended to leap over the river.

"Wait Kyo, you can't just do that. We all have to figure it out because some of us don't have amazing cat-like ability," Yuki protested stepping in Kyo's path.

They sat there for a few moments not really coming up with anything helpful.

"I have an idea," Kyo said and walked to a tree, gave a few hard heaves and uprooted it. He carried it over to the river and laid it perfectly like a bridge.

Everyone complimented his strength and thinking and quickly crossed the river.

"Now what exactly does moldable ground mean. Like fungus?" Kyo asked making sure he wasn't stepping on anything nasty.

Tohru bent down and picked up some of the earthly ground. "I think it means clay. This is all clay that we're standing on."

They all saw that she was right and awarded her some congratulatory genius remarks.

"Follow the path of the setting light that will lead you to its companion the moon. If you dance with her friend the north star you will be led to the destination," recited Yuki.

This was a confusing one because it could mean a few things.

"What if it says we should go west," Kagura said. They all agreed that was the logical thing to do. So they began to go west.

They walked a while and the sun was amusingly falling leaving little time for light.

Kagura spotted this rather large growth of flowers. "Oh Kyo pick me some of those! They are so gorgeous!"

Tohru's eyes widen, "That's it! Do you guys know what those are?" The looked at her dumbfounded. She knelt down and picked one of the flowers. "This is a moonflower. That's what the riddle must mean. So now we follow the North Star? This means going north."

Amazed by Tohru's sudden burst of intellect, they all began to head north. Not too long did they see the beginning of a path. They followed the path which led them to a little cottage.

"That's it!" Yuki exclaimed. Finally they didn't have to walk any longer.

They knocked on the door and heard a wicked voice casting them away.

"Kaori Sohma? Sorry to bother, but we are in need of your help," Yuki called out.

The door opened a crack, a woman's eye was shown, "Help? No one has bothered me for years and all of a sudden four little brats, three of them zodiac, wish for my help!"

"Wow! How did you know they were zodiac Sohma's!" squealed Tohru, she felt like she was at a magic show.

The woman ignored Tohru and went on, "So rat, what you need me for?"

"We are hiding from a certain Sohma, I'm sure you remember him, Akito," Yuki explained.

The woman stomped her foot behind the door, "How could I forget that evil little boy, sure he's grown up by now. That devil exiled me long ago, if you four are running from him, you're welcome here." She opened the door fully allowing her to be seen.

All of their mouths dropped, they expected to see an old woman with straggly gray hair; she was nothing of the sort. She was as tall as the boys, had long shiny pink hair with matching pink eyes. Her presence stunned you.

"Well, come in!" she said. They entered and the shut the door.

"You look the same as you did before you came here," Yuki said, both boys drooled over the eye candy.

"Don't you know I never age? When I was 22 I made this anti-aging potion for the former Sohma chief in command. God she was the most annoying thing, a few years older than I was I believe. Anyways one day she comes to me and says 'Make me this potion or I will have your head' so I obeyed. I went to give it to her two days later. She didn't like the color or the smell of it so she ordered that because I didn't meet her satisfactory levels that I should consume the potion myself. I refused, so she had two of her guards force feed it to me. I never grew old after that. There was a side effect as well with it; no death. It's been a while since that day, over a hundred years I think," her story made them feel guilty and sad for her.

"That's awful!" Tohru cried out, "So are you suppose to live here forever!"

Kaori chuckled, "Of course not. I can leave as soon as that bastard Akito dies. I assume that won't be long, considering his place in the Sohma family. Anyways, where are my manors?" You guys probably went through hell to find this place. Want anything to eat or drink?"

Now that she mentioned it, they were all pretty hungry. She went to her kitchen to start some tea and dinner.

"Where would we be sleeping?" Yuki asked Kaori.

"I have two extra bedrooms. You're going to have to split into two groups. Also there's only one bed in each room, so make do with what you can," Kaori again left to the kitchen.

"I call Kyo as a roommate!" Kagura said suddenly.

"Don't you think it's kind of inappropriate for a boy and girl to share a bed?" Kyo said.

"Only if they're not in love, which we are, so no arguments!" Kagura snapped at him.

"Tohru are you fine sharing a bed with me then?" Yuki asked. He was filled with excitement at the possibility of sharing a room and bed with Tohru.

Tohru waited a few seconds to long to respond, so it was an awkward reply, "Sure. No problem at all."

"Since that's settled we should find out where the rooms are and unpack," Yuki smiled. He was so happy that he could watch over Tohru, keeping her safe from danger.

"_WHERE ARE THEY!_" shouted Akito as he through his glass against the wall.

"We don't know, they didn't come home with us," Momiji said as he coward in fear of Akito. Haru stood next to the rabbit adding little comfort.

"_GET OUT OF MY SITE YOU TWO! SOMEONE CALL THE SEARCH TEAM_!" Akito yelled and then went to reside in his room so his heart could decline.

"I'm going to find you all and punish you like no one has ever been punished. Especially you Tohru…" he sinisterly said out loud.

When the three didn't come home from school and all their stuff was gone Akito knew that they had run away. He didn't know yet that Kagura was accompanying them. His fury was heard all over the Sohma homes and everyone was scurrying about with the news of scandal.

Akito planned a search of Shigure's, Tohru's friends, and everywhere they had ever visited with the Sohma name.

**A/N:**

**Sorry it took so long, I have so much homework on my back! Agh! Well hope you had some fun with this chapter, not much of the love vibe in it this time. Thanks again everyone for the reviews! I'll try to update sooner next time!**


	12. Chapter 12

They stayed their first night at Kaori's. Kyo absolutely refused to share a bed with Kagura and decided to sleep on the roof. That's when Kagura begged Tohru to stay the night with her to help her not feel so lonely. Yuki of course didn't like the idea, but Tohru just smiled and stayed the night with Kagura.

"So what exactly has our little Akito been doing that's made you four risk coming here?" Kaori asked wrapping her hands around her morning coffee. Both boys barely heard her question. Kaori was in a purple morning robe with her hair twisted up; the boys couldn't help but linger with lust for her. Kagura was getting a little annoyed by this.

Tohru decided to speak up since the boys were off in their little minds (boys will be boys), "Well I'm sure you've noticed that I'm not apart of the Sohma family and well it was real hard for Akito to allow me to keep the Sohma secret. Last week I jeopardized everything and he had us move in with him. That's when he started attacking me, nearly killing me. So we just got fed up and decided to run away."

Kaori listened to Tohru's story with one of those 'adult' faces, truth be told Kaori hardly ever did look like an adult. "I see. I'm sorry you had to be exposed to him. He's a pompous bastard, I'll give him that. Well I doubt he'll find you four here."

"That's what we're hoping," Yuki said finally crawling out of his trance.

Kaori flashed a grand smile that stayed a little too long and then spoke, "I have some chores to do today. They all involve stuff to do with the mountain, so I won't be home until dark. Would you kids mind looking after the place while I'm gone?"

Kagura jumped at this opportunity to get rid of the sexy siren, "Of course! I'll make dinner, clean, and everything! You just go off and have a good time!"

Everyone looked at her like she was crazy. Tohru knew why Kagura was so anxious, she couldn't blame her.

Kaori finished her coffee and vanished into the morning sun.

"Ok!" shouted Kagura as soon as the door shut, "Tohru we should really get this place shaped up! I can't let my Kyo living in this mess!"

Tohru looked around herself, the home really wasn't bad at all; it looked simply clean and neat.

But Kagura, always adding to much effort, scrubbed the floors so clean and shiny that felt like you were walking on glass floors. Tohru tried her best to keep up with Kagura's vigorous movements but was released once Kagura said she felt Tohru was holding her back. A little rude, but Tohru didn't mind.

Tohru walked outside of the quant little cottage the fresh sun balancing on her face. For a long time everything was still, calm. She felt like she was living back at Shigure's. I seemed a century since then.

"Tohru…" Kyo walked up behind her, softly speaking. "I know you're still struggling with your feelings…I'm sorry I haven't been much help with that. Kagura is trying all my patience; I haven't really had time to talk to you."

Tohru turned around to face the gentle orange haired boy, "I know. It's all right really."

"It's just, I really do love you Tohru and nothing will change that, ever," his eyes filled with such serene, they reminded her of her mother's eyes, always calm and soothing.

She smiled at him filling him with warmth, "Kyo I know how you feel. I wish things were not as complicated as they are."

Kyo gave a little frown, "Yeah, things have been messed up lately."

Tohru nodded, "Well we can't worry about those things. I think I'm going to go talk a little walk."

"Do you want me to come with you?" Kyo asked with eager in his tone.

"No, I think I need a little time to listen to my thoughts and get some fresh air," she smiled once again. "I'll be back in time to make lunch for everyone."

She left Kyo to himself and trudged off into the family of trees. Bushes and twigs nipped at her skirt as she maneuvered herself around all the plants.

The morning air was crisp, giving it a healthy feel as she breathed it in. The light breeze brushed through her hair, making it wisp about her face.

She thought about how horrible things had gone in a week. She touched her throat; it felt foreign to her now. It was still bruised and sore, it hurt to raise her voice or swallow still. Her eyes got hot with forming tears just thinking about how she got those bruises.

Akito's maniacal face glowering at her stained her mind. She shook off the feeling of terror and wished her hardest until his face submerged back into her psyche.

She leaned against a tree taking sharp breaths; putting herself back together.

Suddenly the hairs on the back of Tohru's neck stood on end. Something was stalking her. She turned around to meet the stalker's golden beaded eyes.

"Where's Tohru? She said she'd be back by now!" Kyo said pacing the room.

"So you just let her go walk around alone! The forest is dangerous!" Yuki shouted.

"You said we would be safe on this side of the mountain!" Kyo yelled back. He felt stupid now for not going after Tohru.

"Well that is if we stayed in one spot. I didn't expect anyone to seriously go walking around! There are dangerous things in the forest!" Yuki and Kyo were inches apart, both getting red in the face. Kagura just watched them from afar.

Suddenly they heard a distant scream.

Both boys looked in the direction the scream had come from, "Tohru."

They broke into a fast pace, running fast as they can. They knew that scream belonged to Tohru. Worry filled their bodies as the pushed themselves to run even faster.

They came upon a small clearing; Tohru was cowering, cornered by a mountain lion.

The lion's fangs hissed at her, toying with her. Its stance was square and parallel with Tohru's.

"Tohru!" Kyo shouted. The lion became aware of the boys, but didn't turn away from Tohru.

Tohru's eyes were full in fear as she played prey to the lion. Her body shook and her hands were clasped tightly around herself, holding on for dear life.

Yuki sat breathing rather hard staring at the scene. Weakly his said Tohru's name and collapsed.

"Yuki!" Tohru shouted seeing the rat fall to the ground.

Kyo ignored Yuki, thought he was pathetic. Kyo leapt in front of the lion challenging it. The lion roared and slashed his paw against the ground.

Kyo quickly made his move and kicked the lion in the jaw. The lion whipped its head around in pain and made a large growl of hatred. Kyo wasn't as scared as he thought he would be. This was feline against feline. Kyo knew he just had the upper hand.

Kyo jumped over the lion, confusing it somewhat and got around to kicking it in the stomach. More protest from the lion was heard. It turned around and slashed Kyo's arm. Red lines began to show up against his skin. Blood.

"Kyo!" Tohru exclaimed now filled with even more terror.

"I'm fine. Tohru go on and get out of here," Kyo said as he round kicked the lion in the face once again.

Tohru scrambled to her feet. She refused to leave the scene, but she knew she had to attend to Yuki.

"Yuki…" she went to his side. He was flat in the dirt breathing heavily. She lifted him onto her lap and she brushed his bangs away from his face. "Yuki please be alright."

Yuki's eyes were slightly open as he tried to mouth Tohru's name.

Kyo had gotten a few more scratches by then, but none of them were painful, they just numbed the skin.

The lion was bleeding from its nose and mouth; it's growling had gotten hoarse.

"This is it…" Kyo said and landed a final blow on the lion. The lion squealed like a little kitten and snapped at Kyo. It squealed again. A few of its ribs were bruised and it made it hard for the lion to attack. It glared long and hard at Kyo before deciding to retreat back into the forest.

Kyo smirked in victory looking over to where he saw Tohru go. He frowned when he saw Yuki in her lap being babied. He rolled his eyes and walked over, "Is he all right?"

Tohru's eyes were filled with tears, "I don't know! We need to get him back to the cottage."

Kyo nodded and placed Yuki over his shoulder. God he weighed a lot.

Tohru walked next to Kyo, looking worried over Yuki. Kyo felt a little upset that his heroics effort went unnoticed.

They got back to the cottage. Kagura screamed when she saw her scraped up Kyo. Finally, some recognition.

Kyo laid Yuki down in his bed, Tohru stuck to his side like glue. She was patting Yuki down with a wet rag, tears still spilling out. Yuki lay there, sweating and breathing quickly.

Kagura dragged Kyo away so she could tend to his wounds. Kagura began to cry as she was bandaging.

"Why are you crying?" Kyo asked surprised by her sudden burst of tears.

"Kyo I can't stand to see you hurt like this," she whimpered a little as she finished. She wrapped her arms around Kyo, making him wince a little.

Kyo hesitated not sure what he was supposed to do while she cried into his chest. He sighed and laid his arm around her. "Kagura, why do you care so much." His voice was soft and gentle.

She looked up at him, her eyes glossy and puffy, "I love you Kyo. I love you so much it hurts. Some nights I can't even sleep. I've tried to not love you, I really have! But there's no denying it, I love you Kyo and I always will."

The words sounded painful and true. What Kagura felt for Kyo was what he felt for Tohru. There seemed no end to this cycle.

For some reason, Kyo didn't feel anger or frustration towards Kagura. For the first time he felt exactly how she felt. To love someone so much it drives you insane. Kyo finally was able to be on Kagura's level and he felt some what a mutual connection with her.

He allowed her to cling to him until her sobbing would cease.

Tohru waited over Yuki's body. She didn't know what she could do. Yuki had a horrible condition that engaged only when he would strain himself. If Tohru never had went out on a walk this would have never happened, she felt horrible when realizing this.

"Please don't die Yuki," Tohru cradled his hand in hers. Yuki coughed every so often and shuddered when his breathing was at its peak.

Tohru slide his hand against the side of her face. Clinging to it like a teddy bear.

She didn't know how to handle the situation. Hatori would be able to help him but they couldn't risk calling him. Tohru's felt once again helpless.

"Tohru…" whispered a tiny voice. Tohru looked to see Yuki's eyes slightly aware of her.

"Yuki, please don't speak. You need to focus on breathing," she clutched his hand tighter.

Yuki shook his head and motioned his hand toward his suitcase.

"Yuki what's in your suitcase? Is it something to make you better?" Tohru prayed that's what it was.

Yuki nodded and mouthed 'medicine bottle'.

Tohru quickly rummaged through Yuki's bag until she found a white bottled labeled with a prescription from Hatori.

She ran back to Yuki, "This?" Yuki nodded. Tohru opened the bottle and took out two pills like the prescription said to do. She got a glass of water from the kitchen and helped Yuki swallow his two pills.

It took about ten minutes before Yuki's breathing returned to normal.

"Thanks Tohru," he said as he still lay in bed.

Tohru smiled, happy tears streaming down her face. She embraced Yuki from the side, "I'm so glad you're going to be all right."

Yuki smiled, "Me to."

Kyo leaned against the door frame, "Ok, it's dinner time. Since Yuki's all right now, Tohru would you mind helping Kagura in the kitchen. I don't trust her any where near food."

Tohru giggled and went to help Kagura. Kyo stayed behind and stared at Yuki.

"What are you staring at?" Yuki asked sitting up in bed.

Kyo smirked, "I can't believe you collapsed back there. How'd do you expect to keep Tohru safe when you're a complete mess?"

Yuki gripped the bed sheets, "Shut up! You stupid bastard."

Kyo rolled his eyes, satisfied with angering the rat and left him alone.

Yuki sadly knew that Kyo was right. How did he ever expect to keep Tohru safe when he has one of his attacks? If Kyo hadn't been there, Tohru would have been hurt, or worse killed.

"I'm sorry I went off alone everyone," Tohru said as the four sat at the table eating dinner.

"It's all right. Just don't do it again," Kyo said stuffing rice into his mouth. Yuki didn't say anything; he concentrated hard on his food. He felt like such a disgrace. Tohru was beginning to worry about him.

The cottage door opened and Kaori walked in. She cutely sniffed the air and smiled, "Something smells good."

She helped herself to a plate of what was made and sat down with the kids.

"What happened to you?" Kaori said looking at Kyo's bandages.

They explained about the day they had.

"You're lucky. Those mountain lions are evil little things. Last week one of them almost got my leg; got it right between the eyes though. I wouldn't recommend walking off into the forest again without me. It's dangerous," Kaori said. The kids gave her a look that read 'no duh'.

Dinner ended and Kaori decided to light a fire. She explained how the nights could get cold sometime this day of year.

"So Kaori," Tohru began, "would you mind explaining why Akito had you exiled?"

Kaori smiled, "That story is something I'll have to share with you another time."

Tohru was going to ask why but decided not to.

Kaori put out the fire and said it was late. So everyone decided to go to bed.

Kyo growled, "Great. It's raining." He had no other choice but to sleep inside tonight. He didn't quite feel like being rained on.

Kagura smile and cheered, happy that she got to spend the night with Kyo.

Yuki was happy as well, that meant that Tohru would be sleeping with him tonight. Tohru was a little nervous still about sharing a bed with Yuki. She's only slept in the same bed with Uo and Hana and that was about it. But there's a first time for everything.

An hour passed after everyone had gone to bed. Kagura was asleep real quick, clinging onto the Kyo's body as she slept. Kyo couldn't sleep thought.

He observed the girl that clung to him; she looked so peaceful sleeping. He couldn't help put gently pat her head. He didn't exactly know why, but he was starting to actually feel something for Kagura. It didn't know exactly what feelings they were but he wasn't scared of them at all.

Tohru couldn't sleep at all. She stared into the dark room hoping that something would make her fall asleep. Yuki was as well awake. He felt Tohru's uneasiness beside him. He wanted to ask why she was giving weird vibes but didn't.

Tohru wasn't sure whether or not Yuki was asleep; she wasn't going to find out either. She just simply tried her best to feel comfortable, but to no avail. She turned to her side facing Yuki's back. It was dark, but she could tell that he wasn't wearing a shirt.

This made a little color bloom in her cheeks. She made a little giggling, it was childish. She'd seen Yuki topless plenty times before, but those were accidents. This time, it was like he was served on a plate. This didn't sneak up on her at all, he was purposely laying there without a shirt on and it made Tohru feel entranced.

Yuki heard Tohru's giggle and turned to face her, which rather surprised her. "Tohru…are you all right?"

Tohru bit her lip a bit, "Yeah I'm fine. I was just thinking of something."

"Oh…can you not get to bed either?" he asked.

She shook her head, "No, this is a little awkward."

He agreed, "Would you be able to fall asleep if I slept on the floor?"

"Oh no, I can't let you do that. I'll manage to fall asleep, this is just new. I'll get use to it," Tohru smiled genuinely.

Akito smiled back. "All right…" he moved a little and kissed his on her forehead, "Night." He turned back on his side.

Tohru blushed even more and turned back to her side. Her body was jittery with feelings of lust. She pushed it all away though and finally her body subdued her mind into sleep.

**A/N:**

**Ok well I updated! Yay! Not much really to say about this chapter. Kyo's feelings are acting up again….oo-la-la. Thanks for comments everyone, see you next chapter!**


	13. Chapter 13

Sun escaped into Tohru's room, falling on her face.

She groaned a bit and rubbed her head into the pillow. She propped up in the bed and saw that Yuki was no longer next to her. She scratched her head wondering what time it was, there was no bedside clock.

She got changed, brushed out her hair, and went to find out what everyone was doing.

She saw Kagura walking around with Kyo's clothes in her hand. Kyo was at her heels with a towel wrapped around his waist yelling at Kagura. "You just can't take my clothes while I'm in the bath!"

Tohru smiled and gave a little laugh before turning her attention to Yuki. Yuki was leaning against the couch, his shirt sleeves rolled up and in some faded pants.

He grinned seeing Tohru, "Kaori has a garden out back, and I asked if I could tend to it today. You want to come with me?"

Tohru thought about it and then agreed she would play in the garden as well.

Yuki was on his knees thumbing through the plants, shuffling dirt around while Tohru watered the plants.

Yuki watched Tohru in the corner of his eyes as she moved about the garden. He had an urge to just grab her and kiss to, but he contained himself.

"So…do you think Kaori will tell us what she did to be exiled?" Tohru ask wiping her wrist against her forehead. She put down the watering pot and looked at Yuki for an answer.

Yuki looked at her in the eyes, "I don't know, maybe."

After a few more minutes of chit-chat, Tohru and Yuki went inside to wash up before lunch. Kaori had said she would personally make lunch that day, saving everyone from Kagura's cooking.

Yuki came into lunch wearing his clothes; he apparently managed to get them back from Kagura. Kagura sat at the table with a sad expression, not looking at Kyo.

Tohru frowned wondering why Kagura was being so quiet. Yuki and Kaori were also wondering what had happened to make Kagura so retained. Even though they were questioning her behavior they knew it had something to do with Kyo.

Tohru decided to take it upon herself to get an answer for what was on everyone's mind.

"Kagura, is something wrong?" Kagura's face lifted towards Tohru.

In a crackly voice Kagura replied, "I'm fine."

Yuki glared at Kyo, "What'd you do this time you damn cat?"

Kyo growled, "I didn't do anything!"

Kaori and Tohru looked at his with a 'yeah right' look. Kagura dipped her head and excused herself, walking at a fast pace away from the table.

Tohru stood up and glared at Kyo, "Want to tell me why she's in a miserable mood?"

Kyo looked down, avoiding Tohru's gaze, "I told her she was a stupid girl who couldn't do anything right and that I would never have any feelings for if my life depended on it."

Tohru shook her head and went to find Kagura. She heard Yuki throw something at Kyo, but didn't bother to look back.

She found Kagura huddled in her room, against the bed. Paths of tears painted her face and her hair was spilling over her ears. Tohru kneeled down to her, "Kagura, Kyo told us what he said."

Kagura sniffled, "He's right…isn't he."

Tohru shook her head, "No, not at all. Kyo's just stubborn and he's really confused about how he's feeling. You can't take him seriously, it's just pointless."

Kagura looked up at her with glossy eyes, "But maybe he knew exactly what he was saying. Maybe he truly doesn't care about me and I'm just wasting my time."

Tohru sighed and hugged her, "Please don't give up on him over this. Kagura I know you're stronger than this, so just hang in there." She didn't know exactly why she was telling Kagura to continue going after Kyo when Tohru herself was deciding if she wanted Kyo or Yuki or neither.

Kagura when back to a steady voice, "How can I when he loves you?"

Tohru was almost taken a bit back from this but maintained composure, "I really can't answer that right now. All I can say is follow your heart."

Kagura nodded not saying anything else.

A few days past after Kagura's break down. She continued her battle to win over Kyo, as if all he said was never said at all.

Yuki and Tohru continued their awkward nights in the same bed; Kyo was contained to his room because at night it almost rained constantly.

Kaori was being the perfect host, always making sure everyone was always comfortable.

One particular day, when everyone was huddled around the warmth of the fireplace Tohru decided to ask Kaori what she had done to get placed here.

Kaori grinned as if she knew they were going to ask her this.

"Well I was making a potion, a potion that Akito didn't approve of called Rinsu," she waited till she felt she had everyone's attention. "It was a potion that allowed a member of the zodiac to touch someone of the opposite sex."

All four of the teen's eyes went wide. Yuki asked, "Did you complete it?"

Kaori smiled, "I did, yes. But Akito stopped me from ever testing it. I asked him why he was set against making life easier and happier for the Zodiac."

Their eyes urged her to continue. This pleased her.

"He said that if the Zodiac could touch the opposite sex then the secure barriers and precautions for keeping the secret safe would fall down. Maybe he was right, but I thought that a person's happiness is more important than some secret. So he ordered destruction of my 'lab' and had me tossed away to be silent. I think Akito feared if people found out that it was possible for the Zodiac to touch the opposite sex that they would want it and thus lowering his authority. That little bastard sure loves to feed off other's misery."

She ended her story with a few more distasteful remarks about Akito. All four of their hearts were pounding and thought about all the possibilities they could have.

Kyo spoke first after the story, "Do you still have this potion somewhere?"

Kaori eyed him, "Akito destroyed all my research."

Kyo was being persistent, "Is it possible for you to make it still, from memory?"

Kaori smiled, she knew the love triangle Kyo was involved; one with the girls and another with Yuki and Tohru. "I'm sorry but I kept everything I had on paper, I never anticipated that it would all be destroyed."

Well as you can imagine, many things were going through their heads. Possibilities of being with each opposite sex and not turning into an animal. Hope almost glimmered in the eyes of the youth.

They all silently slid off into their respective rooms.

Yuki and Tohru were caught in a conversation while snuggled under their covers.

"It would be nice if we had that potion, I could hold her all I wanted," Yuki said. This made Tohru blush; she's being accustomed to doing this a lot lately. Almost everything Yuki said to her was blush able.

"Do you think Kaori would be able to re-create the potion?" Tohru asked rubbing the covers between her fingers.

"I don't know. If she could, I'm sure she would have mentioned it."

They're conversation continued for a bit until they fell into a slumber.

Yuki dreamed of having Tohru in his arms, watching the sun set on a beach.

Tohru had a nightmare, first starting with Yuki and Kyo fighting for her affection and then Akito coming through with rage, attacking Tohru. She slept most uncomfortably.

**A/N:**

**Wow I feel terrible, I haven't updated in 2 weeks. Eeeek! So sorry you guys! Also this is quite a short chapter so I apologize for that. School has been hectic. I can't wait till I'm out of high school, then I'd have more freedom to write more often I believe. Ok well please keep reviewing, let's me know people are actually reading this! Ha, ok well hoped you enjoyed this quickie chapter.**


	14. Chapter 14

Weeks went by, and the four runaways still hadn't been found. Life went on more peacefully. Kyo was actually being nicer to Kagura, yet still making his affection for Tohru grow even deeper and more known. Yuki was becoming quite the flirt around Tohru. Tohru generally didn't do much responding to either of the boys; she figured the more space between them, the more time she had to figure everything out. Kaori amusingly watched the four's affections grow and be tested.

"Tohru!" Kagura shouted gliding clumsily towards her. Tohru was making some late afternoon lunch.

"Yes Kagura?" Tohru smiled turning away from her food preparations.

Kagura was all giddy in the face. "Look what I made for Kyo!" She whipped out a rather scruffy made orange scarf that read in black: Kyo heart Kagura.

Tohru made her normal fake smile and giggles, anyone knew that this gift would be the kind you hide in the back of your closet, never to be seen again. "Wonderful…I'm sure he'll love it."

Kagura smiled twirling around with the scarf in the air, "You think so? I hope he does. I've been working on it for over a week." Tohru noticed band aids on Kagura fingers; she knew that Kagura must have slaved over making that scarf.

Kagura smiled one last time before heading out to find Kyo to give her gift. Tohru wondered exactly what Kyo's response would be to it. She hoped he wouldn't do anything too rude. Kagura was a fragile little thing.

"So…you think they'll end up together?" Kaori asked while leaning against the kitchen island. Tohru hadn't heard her come in at all.

"Excuse me?" Tohru said with a nervous smile.

Kaori smirked and looked at her hand, admiring it like it was a sculpture. She looked back up, "Let me rephrase that. Do you hope that the cat and that girl get together?"

Tohru twitched just a hair, Kaori noticed, but didn't comment. Tohru presented another nervous smile, "Why does my opinion matter?"

Kaori smiled, it wasn't evil, but definitely not friendly. "Come now, you have both of our fair boys' hearts in your hand. The question is though which will you choose? Hmm?"

Kaori walked closer to Tohru, a little to close for comfort. Tohru began getting a tad defensive, "I really don't think that it's any of your business."

"Really now? Well that's probably true, but either way you have to decide which boy's heart your sending to the shredder." With that, Kaori left Tohru in a state of confusion, leaving the kitchen.

Tohru slowly finished making lunch; her body was shaking a bit. She finally realized that if she chose one boy over the other then one of their hearts will be hurt. She couldn't bear hurting anyone like that.

Night fell over the mountain cottage, flames flickering slowly in the fireplace. Kyo was strangled in Kagura's scarf; she sat laying on him, thumbing the scarf. Yuki sat next to Kaori in identical chairs watching the flames dance on the walls. Tohru was in her room, she had to separate herself tonight. She couldn't be around Kyo or Yuki; it just reminded her to much of what she had to do.

'If I chose Yuki, Kyo would probably do something stupid and might get himself hurt or worse. If I chose Kyo then Yuki would be all alone. Kyo always has Kagura, and who does Yuki have…no one. They both are genuine people and I would be lucky to be with either of them. What should I do?' Tohru was thinking to herself, trying her best to sort out her feelings.

Suddenly Tohru whipped her head in alert, there was a loud boom noise coming from where everyone else was.

Tohru ran to them, she heard shouts and things breaking.

She gasped at what she saw. Akito stood there in front of the doorway with Yuki by the throat. Kyo and Kagura were collapsed against a wall; Kaori was held back by two guards with an evil glare in her eyes.

Akito's gaze was fixed on Tohru, smirking and laughing at her. "You thought we would not find you? You truly are infidels."

Yuki's hands were clawing at Akito, gagging for air.

Tohru felt unsheathed tears swell up her eyes. They were tears of terror. Her body shook slightly and the hairs on her arms stood on end.

Akito never took his eyes off Tohru, he was fixated on her. He squeezed harder on Yuki's neck, rewarding him a loud moan of pain. "Come here girl, slowly, or he dies. You wouldn't want that to happen."

Tohru knew Akito would never kill Yuki, but hurt him severely he would. Tohru wouldn't stand by and watch that if she could do something. Tohru slowly walked towards Akito, every step seemed heavier than the previous. Yuki's eyes were wide, pleading Tohru not to go any further, but she continued until she was in arms reach of Akito.

Akito smiled, pleased and threw Yuki against the wall, making him collapse unconscious.

Tohru turned away from Akito and shouted out for Yuki. Bad mistake.

Akito grabbed Tohru's hair and pushed her to her knees. Tears finally streamed down her face. Akito moved his hand from her hair to her chin, tilting it ever so slightly to look up at him.

"I told you before; you would be punished if you ever crossed me. Trust me, the punishment will be so harsh that you'll be begging me to end your life," he whispered the last phrases.

Tohru made a small squeal of fright, while trying to stop her tears. Akito knelt down to be level with the knee ridden Tohru. "Before I torture you though, I'm going to let you watch the punishment of the other three."

Tohru cringed her eyes in anger and spat in his face. Akito, without flinching, pressed his palm into her face, shoving her to the ground, her skulls rubbing against the floor.

"Don't try to be brave girl. It only makes your grave deeper." Akito whacked Tohru's head against the floor making her, too, unconscious.

Tohru opened her eyes wildly, looking around herself. Where was she?

Her arms and legs were chained along a cold, stone wall. Her body was completely vertical, very uncomfortable.

The room was dim, but she could see Kyo, Yuki, and Kagura's bodies aligned opposite of her, hanging from similar chains.

"Yuki! Kyo!" She shouted out hoping that they would respond. Yuki's head propped up, but Kyo was not responding.

Yuki's eyes were red and his lips were edging into blue. He coughed roughly into the air.

"Yuki, are you all right?" Tohru asked her voice in a hoarse whisper.

Yuki nodded, "Are you all right?"

"Yes. Yuki what's going on? Where are we?"

Yuki looked at the room; it seemed he really didn't even observe where they were until now. He sighed greatly, "This is Akito's playroom. The dungeons of the Sohma family."

Tohru saw on one wall blades of all sorts and other objects she couldn't even describe, let alone name. She bit back the fear in her voice, "Will he be using those…things?"

Yuki's face was grim, though you could hardly tell because his hair was spilling forward hiding it. "I'm afraid so."

Tohru's heart sank, her stomach winced. "Is there any way out of this?"

Yuki shook his head negatively, "No. We went against Akito; you know he will make us pay for it."

Tohru shuddered and then broke down into a series of tears. "I'm sorry, this is all my fault. Yuki I just keep causing you're family pain."

Yuki lifted his head more, straining to see Tohru's sobbing face, "Please don't say that. You've only caused this family joy Tohru. Just because Akito is a selfish ruler, doesn't mean that you've done anything wrong. Please don't cry anymore."

She still continued to cry, slowly though it died down. She sniffled a bit wishing she had a free hand to wipe her face clean.

Then a load moaning creak erupted into the room. Light shone high into the room, stairs fell below it; a door. A silhouette of someone came walking slowly down the steps. Each step was more of a scrape then anything. The person let out a sinister laugh, no, more like giggle.

**A/N:**

**Ok well this Chapter had a bit of excitement in it! Yippee! Well I'm still being pummeled with homework, so much fun! Bleh. Thanks everyone for the reviews, they are always welcomed! Well I guess I'll have the next chapter up in about a week, so hang in there! )**


	15. Chapter 15

The echoing giggle crawled over the prisoners' skin; Tohru strained her eyes to see the source of this nonsense. Luckily the person stepped forward to be bathed in what little light was in the dungeon.

"What's going on?" Yuki said with tint of anger in his voice. He stared upon the lovely, yet not angelic face of Kaori.

Kaori grinned, she seemed pleased, but why? "Oh my precious little Yuki…" she prolonged the words as she glided to him, her hand not touching but tracing an invisible line of warmth around his cheek.

Yuki jerked away from her, fear flooding over any anger he had. This just made the smile on her face widen. She curled a fingered in his hair let it fall limp against his face. She took a step away from him and turned to Tohru.

Kaori was in some type of leather dominatrix get-up. Her long hair wrapped into a slithering braid that fell over her left shoulder; her eyes gleamed brightly under the hood of dark makeup and her smile glistened against the rich color of her lipstick. Tohru questioned exactly what was going on; was the person she trusted not to long ago their enemy? If she wasn't a villain, she certainly could fool anyone dressed like that.

The little leather minx paced her steps as she grew near Tohru. In almost a seductive tone Kaori spoke, "You are such a foolish girl."

Tohru knew now that Kaori obviously couldn't be on her side if she was giving out insults while they laid there chained.

"Kaori what did you do?" Yuki asked, his chains clinking as he moved.

She never took her sight off of Tohru but spoke to the boy, "I did what anyone in my position would do. I made a deal. I traded you four so I could come back home."

Tohru spoke out of turn, "But you hate Akito. Couldn't you have waited it out till he died?"

A look of distaste overcame the beautiful woman. She spoke with a bitter tongue, "Yes I will not lie about that. I hate the sadistic bastard and I would pay to see him get what he deserves."

"I feel a but coming on…" Yuki said in a bored tone. How was he taking this betrayal?

Kaori sighed, "But the feeling of loneliness is too great to ignore. Only until you four came to stay with me had I realized how much I missed the warmth of the Sohma clan's embrace. I saw an opportunity and took it like a baby does for its mother's milk."

"Are you trying to get pity out of us Kaori?" Yuki looked at the she-devil.

Kaori flipped her braid so it dangled along her backside. "I don't want pity or any other emotion you might have to offer. I just thought that you should know exactly why I did what I did."

"How noble of you," he spat. He was punishing himself for ever putting trust in Kaori. He believed Kaori's little acting skill at the cottage; endangered Tohru, Kagura, and yes even Kyo. For that he hated himself, but he would die before he allowed anyone to harm Tohru.

Kaori let out a small growl. "He would have caught you eventually you know."

Yuki made a hateful laugh, "Yeah but at least we would have had a fighting chance."

"You think so? At least I control the terms of this little negotiation. If I wasn't a buffer between him and you do you think you'd still be breathing right now?" She folded her arms under her chest, the flesh on her arms rubbing against the leather.

"If you think you control anything, you must be sadly mistaken," Yuki gave a smile to this. "Does Akito think I will not try to transform into my zodiac form and be free from these chains?"

It was Kaori's turn to smile, "He plans on it. If you try to escape it only makes the game more fun."

Tohru just hanged on the sidelines, not sure what to say to anything of this. The talking party wasn't really much aware of her existence at the moment.

"He's going to chase me in my rat form and do what? Tempt me with cheese? I am quite slippery when I want to be; I'd escape before anyone caught me," he laughed as the vision of Akito baiting him with cheese played across his mind.

Kaori's grin never left, "Did you know that Julius is in town and has been informed of your rebellion? Akito says that Julius wants the girl as a new pet."

Tohru let a small gasp. She knew 'the girl' was her. She didn't know this Julius, but if he wanted her for a pet, she immediately didn't like him. Tohru didn't like how this was going but bit back from speaking. If she spoke the fear in her body would just burst through.

Yuki scowled, "And what if I don't escape? What will Julius do then?" Had Julius replaced the fear of Akito now?

"He will torture you, plus the sleeping kitten," she nodded towards Kyo then continued, "but Julius gets the girl either way."

"What about Kagura?" Tohru asked. Her voice was almost empty air from trying to hold back any tint of fear in it.

Kaori's lively eyes flashed onto Tohru. "Kagura will be punished for her actions. She hasn't evoked the wrath of Akito as much as the three of you. Her punishment will be swift."

"What exactly is her punishment?" Tohru said her voice consistent in tone.

"Sadly her punishment I don't approve of, but Julius didn't disbar it. Akito figured that since Kagura had been faithfully chaste for Kyo that he would break her. That's what's keeping him from being here right now, he's preparing for her," she frowned a bit.

Yuki's voice held anger, "He's going to rape her? He can't do that. Leader or not he can't do that to his own!" His eyes flicked to Kagura who lay peacefully in her chains.

Kaori nodded but ignored him. Could she have stopped Akito from his plans? Maybe, but she didn't even try to find out.

Tohru gulped, "I never thought Akito was capable of such things."

"You've seen Akito's physical side of abuse Tohru. You've managed somehow to keep him out of your mind, but Julius is much better in both departments. He will make you break, this I promise," Kaori went to the wall of knives observing them.

Yuki groaned in his chains, "I could transform out of these damn things. But it would be a while till I could transform back. I'd be vulnerable and I would be leaving you vulnerable as well."

Tohru realized that he was directing his words to her. "Please Yuki, save yourself. I don't know if I could stand by and watch you all be tortured."

Then another person came strolling down the stairs, heels clicking against the steps. It was a man.

Sure he was a man but he looked more like a young boy, fresh into adulthood. He wasn't wearing much, just leather pants so tight they could have been painted on. His skin glowed a silky tan color which almost seemed impossible in this light. His hair was a massacre of curls that dripped over his shoulders, creamy wheat color. His eyes, probably his best feature, shone a dark amethyst; they were sharp but gave off a gentle gesture. This had to be Julius.

"Did I miss anything?" His voice was out of place with his appearance. It was too rough to be this lovely vision of beauty's voice, yet it suited him. It drew you away from any fantasy you might have lingered in your mind; made you remember it was just a person, not a heavenly creature. Right?

Kaori wrapped her arms loosing around his shoulders, sighing into him. She lusted after him, heck Tohru did too. This guy was drop dead gorgeous, anyone, probably even a straight male would want to lay with him.

"I just told them a little bit of what they can look forward to," her voice was again in a seductive whispering tone. You could almost feel the heat of her body reaching for Julius. He took a step away from her. Was he turned off by her?

He took a look at Yuki and then at Tohru. A small grin played his face and walked, no floated, towards Tohru. The whole act seemed so surreal.

"You must be my new pet," his voice trailed over her body, as did his eyes. He seemed pleased. His fingers danced across Tohru's cheek playfully. She didn't resist, she seemed trapped into his gaze, almost enjoying it.

"Don't touch her!" growled Yuki across from them. Julius looked over his shoulders at the pissed rat and had an amused look.

"And what would you do to stop me? Must you mind that I am dominant to you? I can have whatever I wish, whenever I wish." He turned back to Tohru and knelt into her, taking in her scent. He nuzzled against her dark hair and moaned into her ear. Was he getting fresh with her?

Kaori tapped the heel of her boot against the stone floor, "Don't get to hasty Julius."

Julius did one last flick of Tohru's cheek and stepped away. Yuki's rage was filling the room giving off a very negative vibe. "You might be dominant over me Julius, but I won't stand by and let you touch her!"

Julius, standing by Kaori, trailed his finger along her back making her let out a pleasurable gasp. "You have no choice in the matter. I'm superior. You do know what I am boy, what I am capable of." It was not a question, just a reminder.

Kyo moved in him chains and looked at everyone with wide eyes. "What's going on?"

Yuki looked at him, "It seems our protector Kaori betrayed us. She turned us over to Akito willingly."

Kyo turned to Kaori with lost eyes, "But why?"

Yuki continued talking; maybe talking was the only way to stop thinking about what lay ahead of him, "So she could return to live here."

Kyo's eyes filled with sorrow of betrayal. He didn't like being betrayed, it happened almost too often for him. His eyes then fixed on Julius. He didn't notice him till now.

Kyo's eyes went wide and filled with terror and he started to shiver. "Julius".

Julius smiled, still standing with Kaori. "Oh my little kitten finally has awakened. You almost had me worried I would have to wait another day to have fun."

Kyo's face was stricken with some sort of painful memory. Tohru had never seen such fear rise so quickly in anyone.

"No, Julius…I won't let you touch me…not again…" Kyo's words were more of a plea then a demand.

Julius and his all mighty, muscular body walked to Kyo. "Oh but I've missed you so much my little one." He cupped Kyo's cheek in his hand making Kyo protest, tears crumbling from his eyes.

"Please leave him alone!" Tohru cried out. Julius removed himself from Kyo and faced Tohru. He had an arrogant expression claiming his face. It didn't seem at all out of the ordinary.

"You must care for him a lot if you're naïve enough to start asking things of me," he walked to her, making every step a certain point in his appearance.

"I care for him yes. I care for Yuki and Kagura as well. Please, don't hurt them," her innocent voice was found. She thought she had lost long ago, when all this Akito stuff began.

Julius rubbed his fingers against her chin, "You are as everyone says."

Tohru didn't know how, but Julius seemed to be touching Tohru's sensual senses. Was he playing with her mind? "And what does everyone say?"

He leaned close to her, close enough to kiss. "That you are ignorant beyond your years."

Certainly not a compliment and certainly not anything to be proud of, Tohru whipped her head, turning from him. She didn't want him near her, let alone touching her. Julius laughed; his laugh was like sharp nails on a chalk board. He thought it was a game.

He gripped her chin and roughly, bringing her eyes to his. "I don't do favors my pet. You must not have heard anything of me if you did not know something as simple as that."

She balled her fists; maybe she was ignorant if she knew nothing of this man. "It's true; I've never heard a mention of your name in my life. Up till now I though Akito was the head honcho of this place, but obviously I was wrong."

"You have no idea how wrong you were. So since you know nothing about me, I feel that I should inform you just what you're new master is all about," he pulled away from her and started to pace a small circle, reaching the edge of everyone that was chained.

Tohru wanted to argue the thought of him being her master, but she decided to relax a bit and hear what he had to say.

"I am what the Sohma family calls the Tsuyoi Sohma. I am the first of my kind. I am invincible and control all of the Sohma family. You said you thought Akito was the top leader, in a sense you were correct thinking that. Akito's position in the Sohma family is indeed one of the higher rankings, master of the zodiacs; but not the top. His job is to rule here but any of his punishments or uses of Sohma members must first come to me for a ruling; much like a judge.

"My Tsuyoi powers didn't kick in until I was 19. I was a normal Sohma, not even allowed to see the inner workings of the zodiac. I didn't truly care much about the whole zodiac thing since I wasn't included, I probably was just jealous though. Suddenly, however, I came into some hefty power. My parents thought I was an undiscovered zodiac, I almost wished I wasn't anything. I didn't want to have my life kept a secret as the members of the zodiac had to. They tried everything to get me to transform into an animal, but it didn't do anything but irritate me.

"I killed my mother one day; by accident of course. I couldn't control my power back then and emotions tended to trigger it. She had been disappointed that I was not a zodiac member and she feared me, which both of those things obviously caused me great pain and anger. So I managed to run her through a few walls one day. Since then people have been terrified saying 'If he could do that to his own mother and not feel regret, imagine what he would do to us.' Wrong though, I did feel regret about doing it, but that faded after the Sohma's granted me top seat of power. I controlled the zodiac's master and could twine everyone around my little finger. Power can do a great thing to someone's ego.

"Sadly though a few brave Sohma's decided to test my powers. They died rather quickly by my hand. I didn't want to be bothered by such pathetic threats and decided to live away from this place, only to be bothered by the zodiac master when they needed a green light to do something. I haven't made an appearance around here in ages. The place still looks the damn same, people really need to accept change more often."

His story ended and he looked at Tohru to see what she had to say; he considered she probably wouldn't speak at all, but she did.

"So you're saying that you have some kind of mystical power that no one but you posses?" Tohru's body was getting tiresome from being chained.

"That I know of, yes," he stepped closer once again to Tohru. "I never in all my years imagined that a young, little thing like you would be able to corrupt the Sohma family."

Tohru squirmed a bit, "What do you mean?"

"You've managed to get a handful of Sohmas to go against their superior," he meant Akito obviously. "It's impressive. You don't seem to possess any trace of power and you're not of any Sohma blood, yet they follow you. That is what drew me here to this place, not to punish a few stray animals, but to collect you. To figure out exactly what hold you have over them."

Tohru's heart leapt. This person had come from where ever the hell he was from to 'collect' her. It certainly made her feel special and also very scared. "Please, just let them go and I'll go with you."

He let his head fall back and laugh. He looked at Tohru, "You have not been listening my pet. I have come here to collect you. You have no say in it. As for letting the others go, I won't bargain for their safety. They have disobeyed Akito and shall see a fitful punishment."

Yuki and Kyo had long been silent. Tohru wondered if they knew what Julius was capable of by word of mouth or by experience.

Tohru looked down at her dangling feet. She was again helpless to do anything. She hated that.

Julius smiled; his new 'pet' really did entertain him.

**A/N:**

**Well hope you guys enjoyed the little twist in the plot. Thanks for the reviews everyone and keep reading. Hehe, yeah well school's been a pain as usual (what else is new?). I've had such lack of sleep this week it's almost insane. Hmm…well I guess I'll leave it at that for now.**


	16. Chapter 16

Julius had removed Tohru from the dungeons and placed her in an empty room. The room had no windows, only a small headlight; the only thing to look at was the door which was carefully locked after Tohru entered. It was an improvement to being in chains.

Julius promised to join her after he watched the torment of the others. Tohru hated that she didn't know what was going to happen to them.

She sat in the middle of room staring at the door; hoping that maybe if she willed it enough, it would open. She knew that wouldn't happen.

She heard a scream in the distance, Kagura's scream. Tohru winced. Kagura's punishment was to be raped by Akito. Thinking about it brought tears to her eyes.

She lunged at the door and started pounding it and screaming. She wanted the door to open so badly.

A grumpy male voice came from the other side. "Shut your ass up in there!"

Tohru screamed only louder and pounded only harder. The man pounded back in annoyance.

Tohru started clawing the door, breaking a few nails. "Let me out! Please! Open this door!" She was crying hysterics now and just kept pounding and clawing. Blood began to run down her pale hands; she was hurting herself. Her hands were numb and lifeless, but she continued to be persistent with the door.

The door flung open and the angry door guard glared at her and slapped her across the face. Tohru fell to her knees and allowed the pain to rumble through her. She shot up at the guard taking him down. His eyes fluttered shut; he must have hit his head hard on the ground.

Tohru heard Kagura scream once more and Tohru began running toward it; her hands letting blood drip from them.

Tohru came to a door and wasted no time in opening it. She saw Kagura tied to a large bed, tears streaming down her face; someone had finally gagged her. Akito stood at the foot of the bed, only a robe covering him. Julius stood over against the wall with two unfamiliar males on either side of him. Were they planning on watching or joining in the rape? Sickos.

Julius smiled curiously at Tohru. "What a surprise my little one."

Akito glared at Tohru. "Don't worry, you'll get your turn. Just wait over there"

Julius in a flash was over by Akito and slapped him. "Don't undermine my new pet. No one is to touch her Akito. You hear me boy?"

Akito coughed and only nodded solemnly as he turned his attention back to the writhing Kagura.

Julius walked slowly to Tohru and his eyes flicked to her hands. "What have you been doing my pet?"

Tohru's hands were shaking from shock but she just looked at Julius. "Let her go."

He threw his head back and laughed. His laugh crawled over the room and even made Kagura stop squirming to acknowledge it. "Oh little one, I told you, no bargains. They are all getting what they deserve."

Tohru's hands were regaining feeling, they were hurting like hell. "I'm not bargaining with you, I'm telling you."

He laughed again and squared her in the eyes. "You think you have the authority to command anything of me? You truly are interesting. Come now, you shall watch this to. Maybe you might even enjoy it."

Tohru saw the fear in Kagura's eyes grow. She looked back at Julius who wore a blank face now. "You're crazy. Let her go now Julius."

He tsked her, "No my pet, you call me master; and no she shall not be released."

Tohru walked to where she was an inch from Julius, blood trailing along. "I won't call you anything of the sort. Now if you won't release her then I will."

Her grabbed Tohru's arm; not a hard grip, but it wasn't light either. He brought one of her wounded hands to his mouth. Tohru's eyes widened in confusion. He ran his tongue across her hand, lapping at the blood.

She gasped and tried to pull back, but his grip tightened.

"Stop that! Please stop it!" He allowed her to slip through his grasp. She hugged herself and looked at the ground. "What is wrong with you."

He smiled and patted her head, making her cringe. "You shall see in good time. Now if you call me master I will release this girl from her punishment."

Tohru looked up at him. "I thought you didn't make bargains."

He rubbed his hand along his chin like he was thinking. "If it's beneficial for me, I'm willing to make small sacrifices."

Tohru looked at Kagura, still struggling in her restraints and biting on her gag.

"Fine, I will call you master. Now let her go."

"First call me master, my pet. Then I shall have Akito return her to safety."

Akito growled, his robe spilling open. "What! You can't deny me what is mine. They are my zodiac, not yours! You can't take that away!"

Julius smacked Akito again. "Don't tell me what I can and can not do boy. Remember your place. I am dominant and you have no say." He turned to Tohru. "Now call me master and she will go unharmed."

Tohru made a unsatisfied face and grumbled, lowering her head. "Master please let her go."

He smiled and grabbed Tohru around the waist, bringing her into him. He nodded at Akito, who regretfully undid Kagura's restraints. The two other males now went to help Kagura leave the room. She didn't want them touching her, but they gave her no choice.

Julius ordered everyone else out, leaving only Tohru and him.

"Now let's look at those hands of yours." He sat her on the bed and knelt looking at her hands. He shook his head. "She must mean something a great deal to you. Is she your lover?"

Tohru jerked back. "No! She's not my lover! I'm not like that!"

He grinned and pushed back his hair. "Good, I was starting to worry. So if she isn't your lover, what made you come to her?"

"She's my friend. I came to save her. Even if she wasn't my friend I would come. No one deserves to be tortured or raped," Tohru rubbed her hands, feeling over the cuts and newly formed bruises.

"I don't understand you my pet. I look forward to getting to know you." He threaded his hands through her hair and sighed.

She gazed up at him. He was truly a gorgeous man, yes man. You couldn't call this heavenly being a boy, no way in hell.

"Can Yuki and Kyo be released?" Tohru pushed back her lust fro Julius's body. Damn him for being so beautiful.

"No, I'm afraid those two had been testing the patience of not only Akito but me as well. They are to serve their punishment. Nothing you can offer would be able to save them."

Tohru frowned. "I won't let anyone touch them. No one."

He laughed his normal wiry laugh. "What do you think you can do my pet? You are already injured from a door. Do you think you can take on a person?"

Tohru gripped the bed's sheets and allowed her voice to grow angry. "They are good people. I love them. I would risk my life if it meant preserving theirs."

Julius raised his eyebrows and hugged Tohru. She tried to push him off, but he was stronger. "You must forget about them my pet. When we return to my home they will not be there. Their scent won't linger anywhere, their voices won't fill the halls, only I will be there. You must love me my pet, I am your master. Risk your life for me, love me."

Tohru froze in his embrace. "I'm not going to forget them. They've protected me, I need to protect them. You ask me to love you, to risk my life for you. You have to earn that Julius, much like they have. I don't see you earning that in this life time."

He corrected her for not saying master. "Maybe that is true my little one, but you aren't going to save them."

"So you've said." She slipped from his arms and stood, blood dried on her hands. He stood next to her. "You'll never have me under your control. You know that right?"

He whispered, "Then I'll just have to break you." He locked her in his arms and buried his face in her hair. "We're going to watch them be tortured. You're going to watch it, you're going to help. If you don't do as I say then I'll punish you and make their punishment even worse."

Tohru protested in his arms and tried to break free. She refused to move from that room, but he dragged her back down into the dungeon depths. She closed her eyes not wanting to ever open them again.

"Open your eyes my pet."

**A/N:**

**Well there's another chapter for you. Not much for me to say right now. Thanks for the reviews everyone.**


	17. Chapter 17

In the dungeon Tohru observed the scene. Kyo had been moved to a stone table, chained so his body made an X; Yuki was in a steel chair tied with ribbons of rope and chains; they were starting to chaff at his bare skin.

Kaori was dressed in different attire, this one lacking even more taste. It was a shiny red leather two piece that could pass off as a gothic swimsuit; though a swimsuit did cover more. Her long hair was sprawled over her shoulders, covering her like a shawl. She stood behind Yuki's chair; kneading her hands through his hair.

The two men that had escorted Kagura earlier were now hovering over Kyo, but not touching him. Their attention was held on Julius.

Julius traced the line of Tohru's jaw. "My pet, I do hope you enjoy what you see down here."

Tohru screwed her face up as he touched her. He smiled, happy or angry? She could not tell. Tohru looked at her friends. Yuki's eyes were calm, but she knew somewhere he was hiding his fear. Kyo's eyes were skittish; he said earlier he didn't want Julius to touch him again. Had they previously met? This detail got attention from Tohru.

She craned her head so she could look at Julius. "Have you done anything to Kyo in the past? Before all this stuff."

He nodded. "I've played with the kitten yes. If you wish details, I think it is best you ask him. I'm sure he could manage to find some colorful words to describe it."

Tohru tensed a bit causing Julius to rap his arm around her. His warmth enveloped her, causing her to feel happy. She snapped out of his mystical hold. "Stop that."

He looked at her with a sarcastic smile, "Stop what my pet? I have done nothing."

She took a step away from him and he allowed it. "You know what I mean. Don't ever do that again…" She knew he had powers and was betting that one of them was to ease a person's tension; or something similar to it.

He closed the space between them so quickly, she gasped. He cradled her face in his hands. "Don't forget your place. You can't demand anything of me…" He leaned in as if to kiss her, but only lowered his voice, "Don't make me hurt you…I don't think I could control myself if I did." His voice lingered with lust, not sadistic promises; though rape is mighty sadistic.

He brushed his lips on hers lightly and stepped back, his hands to himself like a good boy.

"Bastard…" Yuki spat, his calm face faltering. Kaori pulled at his hair, but got no reaction from him.

Julius smirked and left Tohru's side and strode up to Yuki. He stood as a dark shadow over him. "I advise to watch your tongue or I will be forced to cut it off."

Yuki glared up at Julius. "Don't you touch her again. Your filthy hands aren't worthy of her."

Julius laughed. "Do you think your hands are just as worthy? We are monsters you ignorant boy. She is human and we could easily take her humanity from her. We are superior to her. If anything her hands are unworthy. Don't say such foolish things."

Yuki's glare glowed with a deeper level of hatred, one that was new to Tohru's awareness. "I will kill you if you touch her."

At that remark, Julius threw his head back and laughed. His laughed made Kaori shudder behind Yuki. Julius turned his head over his shoulder and beckoned to Tohru, "My pet, please come to me." He held out a lone hand in her direction.

Yuki shook his head at Tohru, urging her not to come forward. Tohru broke from his gaze and looked into Julius's eyes. His eyes were captivating, welcoming. Another trickery on his part she bet. His power flung to her, wanting to wrap itself around her. Tohru struggled for breath as his power leeched on her like pesky mosquitoes. It made her arms grow Goosebumps, yet she was completely warm. The power wasn't threatening her, it wanted her.

"What are you doing…" she whispered, now hugging herself.

Julius only smiled and asked her to come to him again. Tohru tried to struggle against the pressing power, but knew she would only lose this battle. Like a robot she took a step, another step, and another; closer to Julius, closer to his welcoming hand.

She felt his fingers mold around hers as he drew her into him. He rested his head on top of her hair and sighed. He turned so he could see Yuki. "See how she obeys. You shall learn loyalty to me, boy. I have all the time in the world to wait for it."

Yuki looked at Tohru and almost frowned. "You've bewitched her Julius. She never would have come willingly if you weren't herding her like a sheep to you."

Julius's smile at turned into a blank expression. "Never the less, you will learn loyalty boy."

Yuki smiled, "The names Yuki pal."

Julius slapped Yuki across the face; his other arm was locked around Tohru.

Tohru let out a small squeal and tried to pull away from Julius; he only held her tighter. Julius looked at Kaori, "Have a little fun with him for a while."

Kaori grinned, pleased that she had permission for mayhem. Julius led Tohru over to where Kyo resided. Tohru was still trying to protest Julius's hold, but he was far too strong for her.

Julius lifted Tohru onto the table, so she sat with her legs dangling off the side. She was pieced so she fit on the empty space on the side of Kyo's chest.

Julius petted Kyo's head, while holding onto Tohru's thigh. He didn't trust that she wouldn't try to run.

"Oh my lovely orange kitty. How I have missed you in the passing years." Julius's voice was in a lover's tone. Oh god. Tohru prayed that they weren't lovers previously. That would just be too weird for her to handle right now.

Kyo shuddered in fear. Of all the time she's known Kyo, Tohru had never seen him look so defenseless. It almost defeats the whole struggle of him putting up such a tough act before.

Julius traced along the lines of Kyo's collar bone; did I mention Kyo was naked waist up? Tohru didn't miss that little detail at all.

"What the hell did you do to him that made him as scared as he is…?" Tohru breathed the sentence. Kyo's fear was riding over her like a sleeping pill. She didn't like the feeling one bit.

Julius didn't look at her as he responded. "He came to me looking for shelter. I don't know how he found me, but he did. I took him in since I had recently lost a pet. We played, though he didn't seem to like my games much. Then he asked to leave and I allowed it, but under certain circumstances of course."

"What circumstances would those be?"

Julius's mouth curled into a smile. "He was allowed to leave with his life, as long as he kept his end of the bargain. That he can't give himself to anyone but me."

Great. They had been lovers before. Tohru winced and looked down upon Kyo's face. He looked regretful. "I'm sorry Tohru…"

Tohru shook her head. "Don't be."

Julius looked at them, pausing at each of their faces. "This could be interesting…"

Tohru looked at him puzzled. "What could be interesting?"

He giggled, yes he giggled. "My pet you seem to have a lust connection between these two boys. I would really enjoy a show between the three of you…"

"A show…? What do you mean?" Ignorance is bliss in Tohru's case.

Kyo shook his head. "No, you can't make her or any of us do that. Not for your pure enjoyment."

Tohru titled her head, still confused. Julius found it cute and straightened up. He embraced her and held her close. Tohru was getting use to his touchy-touchy actions, but only liked it less and less.

He helped Tohru off the table and held her hand. "I'll need to put you somewhere for safe keeping my pet." He led her to a cell that was kind of centered between where Yuki and Kyo were. It had vertical rustic bars.

"You're putting me there." It was a statement, not a question.

Julius nodded. "I fear you might spoil our fun in punishing them. I told you I wanted to break you. I want you to watch the first half and then I'll bring you out to help in the last half." He lightly shoved Tohru into the cell and hatched the door shut. He whispered, "It's your fault you're so stubborn. If you could only bend to my will, you wouldn't be in this position."

She wrapped her hands around the cold metal of the bars and stared as Julius walked off. Her heart was thudding, in sync with every step Julius took; distancing himself from the cage.

**A/N:**

**Hey readers! Sad thing…my laptop is no more. The hard drive crashed and burned so I lost a lot of files and I'm still mourning over the loss. I'll be on my bro's computer for the mean time though. Thanks everyone for the reviews and I hope you liked the chapter.**


	18. Chapter 18

Tohru clung to the bars of her cell. Kaori was bending over Yuki running a long silver feather up and down his chest, along his neck, and tickling his nose. Did she have some weird fetish going on? Julius had left Yuki in Kaori's hands for a while and started with Kyo.

Kyo writhed and cried as Julius edged closer to him. Julius grinned maliciously at the frightened cat. He smoothed back Kyo's hair with his hand and made shushing sounds, trying to calm down the cat. This only mad Kyo swallow his cries, making choking sobs.

"Kyo, I've missed you terribly. I can sense you haven't been touched by anyone. I'm glad you've kept up your part of the deal." Julius ran one of his hands along Kyo's inner thigh. Kyo's eyes went wide and he shook his head to protest.

Julius bent down and gently licked along Kyo's jaw line. He absorbed the fear that radiated from the boy. Julius suddenly was on the table, straddling Kyo. He bent down and ran his hands up Kyo's bare chest, whispering little words of another language.

Tohru closed her eyes tight. She didn't want to see this, none of this. She opened them again and saw Julius get even more sexually explicit with Kyo. She flicked her sight to where Yuki was…or was. The chair Yuki had sat in was lonely vacant. She panicked and traced the room for him.

She finally spotted him on one wall, chained up again in a vertical pose; he was stripped down into his boxers. Yuki's pale skin looked deathly shiny under the small light of the room. Tohru gasped when she saw Kaori walking over to Yuki, slapping something against her wrists; a whip.

Kaori slithered close to Yuki with whip in hand. She ran the whip slowly along his chest. Yuki kept a straight face, showing no emotion or fear. Kaori leaned into him whispering, "I want to hear you scream. I want to bask in your fear Yuki. Scream for me. I might go easier on you if you cooperate. Or if you like it, I can go harder." She roughly kissed his lips, but he stood his ground and didn't allow her pressing mouth to enter his.

Kaori stepped back, a little hurt from his rejection. She swung her arm backwards and lashed down on Yuki. Yuki grunted, but didn't do much else. A red line streaked his chest and small patterns of blood appeared.

Tohru cried out to Yuki and shook the bars that held her. Kaori looked over her shoulder at Tohru and just smiled. Tohru glared at her, she wanted to hurt Kaori more than anyone in the world; more than Akito.

Julius called for Tohru's attention. "My pet, please, the boys are supposed to be the ones shedding tears, not you." Julius was sitting on Kyo's chest, his hands flat on the table.

Tohru gritted her teeth, tears running along her nose and cheeks. "Stop it."

Julius smirked, "What did you say my pet?"

Tohru slapped the bars in frustration. "Stop it! Stop it! STOP IT!"

Tohru heard another crack of the whip and looked at Yuki and Kaori. Yuki had another red line marking his beautiful body. Pain was finally showing through his precious face.

Julius shook his head and laughed. "What you ask I can not do my pet. I will have my share of both boys, and then I will bring you out here to have some fun yourself. Kaori requested to only work with Yuki. She likes the silent type."

Tohru let out a wordless scream of aggravation and started shaking. Kyo and Yuki watched her shake against the bars and both called out to her. Tohru fell to her knees, saying "No, No, No" under her breath. Julius sighed and leapt off Kyo, making his way to Tohru.

He knelt down to her, the cell bars acted as a barrier. "My pet, my pet, get a hold of yourself."

Tohru screeched at him, yes screeched. Her eyes were wild and full of an undying need of wrath. She threw her hand at him in a claw motion. He was quick to the movement and caught her by the wrist and twisted it. She cried out and whimpered as her held her securely by the wrist.

"My pet, you are quite upset. If you keep making such an interference, the boys will suffer only twice of much. Do you want that?" She peered at him, her hair curtaining her pain-soaked face. She shook her head and sniffled up her tears. He smiled, pleased, and released her wrist. She brought her hands back to herself and cradled it. Blooms of purple started to show; it would be a good bruise by tomorrow.

Julius returned to Kyo's side, but did not get on top of the table. He said something to Kyo, which only was loud enough for them to hear. Kyo started shouting "No! Please God No!" Julius walked over to the wall that was decorated with metallic weapons. He grabbed a small blade and was once again over Kyo's side.

Tohru was shaking still and on her knees, watching everything like an unreal dream. She saw the blade hover over Kyo's chest and heard another series of cracks from the whips. Her vision tanked and the last thing she remember seeing was the glint of silver.

She woke up feeling the cool stone against her flesh. She gasped in air and rolled onto her back. Her head was pounding and her heart was slowly beating.

"She's awake…" muttered a disgruntled female voice. Kaori's most likely.

Tohru turned her head and saw the cell door was open and Kaori was leaning against the frame of it. She heard Julius's voice somewhere else in the room. "Bring her to me…"

Kaori rolled her eyes and picked up Tohru by the waist. She was pretty strong for a woman. Tohru's eyes were half open, trying to shake off her sleep. Kaori spilled Tohru to the floor. Tohru saw a pair of boots before her and looked up at the owner; Julius.

Julius smiled and offered Tohru his hand. She just looked at it but didn't have any intention on taking it.

Julius shook his head and grabbed Tohru by the waist and got her to her feet. She stumbled and Julius was quick to support her till she could stand on her own.

Tohru rubbed her throbbing head. "What happened…?"

"You passed out my pet," Julius said in a calm tone. He cupped her face in his hands. "Are you all right?"

She nodded, "I think so." She remembered suddenly about the torture acts and started looking around for the boys, but they were not anywhere to be found.

Julius seemed to know exactly what Tohru was thinking. "The boys have been moved my pet. They got too weak from their punishment and transformed. I thought they could have withstood a bit more, but oh well. I don't like to torture them in animal form, seems to cruel." Cruel? Ha, this guy is a complete sociopath.

Tohru's eyes began to get glossy again. "Take me to them! I need to make sure they're all right!"

"Tsk, tsk, my pet. Make no demands of me. They are fine, a little roughed up, but fine. They'll live…for now. Please, I wish for you to feel well when you get your turn." His hands were at his side now, thankfully Tohru was feeling better to stand alone.

"I won't harm them Julius." He corrected the Julius part.

"They will need some recovery first. I want them to be in human form when you do it," he sounded like this was an average, daily thing. Tohru shook her head and protested, rambling about how she wouldn't and couldn't do it. Julius just smiled at his babbling pet and patted her head which made her get stiff and quite. "You will do as I say. If you don't I will have Kagura brought back for Akito to play with. Kaori will happily take Yuki to bed with her and Kyo will be a treat for me. I'll make you watch it all if you prefer. You're choice."

Tohru's anger and confusion rose in her. She shook her fists at her sides and looked at the floor. She hated this man, this place, this family. Wait, this family? Does she hate them? No, she couldn't. She doesn't like the family politics, but she loved most of the family.

Julius lifted her chin up his finger and caught her gaze with his. "So, my pet, what will it be? Will you torture the boys or watch them and the girl be raped?"

Tohru wanted to cry so badly, but she knew she had to stay strong; even if it cost her, her sanity. "Is there another option on the table?"

He smiled and ran his fingers through her hair. "Remember earlier I said I would love to see you three in a little show?"

Tohru recalled what he was asking. "Yes, but I'm not sure what you mean by that."

He laughed quite loud at this; he knew she must truly be innocent. He bent down to her and whispered, "Tell me my pet, have you ever been with a man?"

Tohru tilted her head. "What do you mean?"

He grinned at her; he knew she was a true virgin. "Forget what I said about the show my pet. I offer something much better. Well more beneficial for me that is."

"What would that be?" She was getting nervous now; she didn't like the tone of his voice. It was lustful and played with a sinister touch.

"My pet, I will not make you finish the boy's punishment, which I will leave to Akito. But you, you shall join me to a more private place." He slid his hand down her arm.

She shivered and looked at him. "Is there any way to get them out of punishment?"

"I'm afraid not. Their punishment is set. Akito won't nearly hurt them as much as I or Kaori would. I think if you were to pass out punishments that you wouldn't do nearly as much damage that is needed and I'm afraid it might mess with your psyche."

She laughed a bit, "I thought you wanted to break me…"

He shook his head, "That was before I grasped the whole concept."

"So what now? I let Akito hurt Kyo and Yuki and we go somewhere private and do what?"

He grinned, "Do you trust me?"

"No."

"Well would you trust me enough to accompany me to a private room?"

She shook her head. "I don't think so."

"Ok then you can go back into the cell and watch Kaori and I punish the boys."

"No," Tohru said grabbing his arm. She looked down at her feet. "I'll go with you somewhere. I don't want them to hurt anymore. If this lessens their pain, then I'll do it."

Julius smiled. He wrapped his arms around her and brought him close to her. "You're making the right choice my pet." He looked up at Kaori, "Go fetch Akito, tell him he can have some fun." Kaori was angry, she didn't like what Julius was going to do. But she nodded and walked away. Julius kissed Tohru's forehead. "Shall we go?"

"Yes…but what will we do once we're there?" She whispered.

"Trust me, you'll find out in all good time."

She didn't like the sound of that, but she followed in suit like a good girl. She wasn't in any position to argue.

**A/N:**

**Ok well I didn't re-read this for errors, sorry if there is any; I'm sure there is. Hope you guys liked this chapter.**


	19. Chapter 19

Julius had brought Tohru into what he said was his 'private suite'. The room had a gold color scheme. The bedding, furniture, curtains, and even the pictures frames were a shimmery gold. Tohru stood in awe at how lovely the room was.

Julius stretched himself on his bed, propped up a little by the pillows. Tohru stood singular, alone.

"Ok, now what?" Tohru asked folding her arms across her chest.

Julius did a boyish giggle, "Oh so eager. My pet, come to me." He opened his arms, hands outreaching to her.

Tohru paused a few seconds before going to him. He slipped his hands around hers and gracefully pulled her onto the bed. She lay entrapped by his arms, in a weird spooning position. He breathed against her hair, and rubbing his head against hers. Talk about a very uncomfortable position.

Tohru squirmed a bit, hoping he'd catch her uneasiness. He did, but it only made him happier that she was resisting his touch.

He whispered, his mouth hovering next to her ear, "My pet, I keep my word. I'm going to break you and hopefully it will just as enjoyable for you as I'm sure it will be for me."

Tohru's heart jumped. "There's no one in here that you can make me torture. You can't get to me mentally when no one else is here."

She could feel him grinning against her. He ran his cheek against hers. "There's other ways to break you…mentally and physically."

Tohru tensed, not blinking one bit. "Physically? Do you mean…like what Akito was going to do with Kagura?" She prayed that he was joking, that he wasn't meaning anything sexual. Way to be naïve Tohru!

"Rape? My pet, do you think I'll rape you?" He was whispering again. "You can not rape what is yours. You are my pet and I am your master. I can not rape you because you are mine. What I plan on doing can not be called rape because you are my pet and I can do whatever I please to you."

Tohru's mind shut off and she started screaming and thrashing in his arms. She didn't care what she did, as long as she could get away from him.

He laughed that stupid laugh and released her from his arms. She scurried off the bed and ran for the door. She clawed at the door, tried to pry the door open, but it was locked somehow. She was in hysterics, yelling wordless screams, leaping around the room. Everything was locked and worse yet, there were no windows behind the curtains. It was like the room was playing with her head.

She finally jumped into a closet and closed the door. Sure there were no locks and he obviously knew where she was at, but she wanted to distance herself as much as she could; even if it was not a full proof plan.

Tohru huddled in the closet, wrapping all the hanging clothes around her, and crying to her hearts content.

She didn't want Julius to rape her. Sure he might not think it is, but she certainly did. She was a virgin by choice and wanted to keep it that way.

Suddenly the closet door flung open and Tohru screamed, shutting her eyes tight.

"My pet, stop playing games." His voice was soothing and welcoming, but Tohru was not fooled. She clutched at the clothes harder and kept screaming for him to go away.

"Do this willingly or I will go down and hurt them…" His voice seemed to be tired. Was he tired of Tohru's resistance?

Tohru opened her eyes slowly and screamed even louder. Julius was practically naked, except for underwear, if you could call it that; it barely covered much, just enough though.

He grinned at her and offered his hand. Tohru shook her head and gritted her teeth so hard her jaw began to ache.

"Don't make me use my powers on you Tohru. You won't like it." He still held out his hand to her. She didn't move one inch. He frowned and unleashed his power onto her.

Tohru felt smothered by his power. It was leeching on her, wrapping itself around her. She squealed and cried harder that she ever had.

Julius pulled back his power and repeated his offer again; hand still outstretched. Tohru looked at his hand. She knew that he only gave her a taste of his power, how would it feel if it was full blast? She didn't want to find out and numbly reached for his hand. He moved in the last few inches and clasped hands with her once more.

He pulled her up into his embrace and tried to sooth her. She was still shaking and crying.

"Please my pet, stop this behavior. I promise you'll enjoy it, I promise." His voice was so wonderful, so fantastic, she wanted to believe him. Wanted to believe that he would keep her safe from the world, from him. She knew this was all some game, another trick, but she calmed down. What use was she to herself if she couldn't think straight?

He led her to the bed and sat her down. "Would you like a drink? I'm sure you're thirsty after the day you've had." Her day still wasn't over…

Tohru nodded though and he got her a glass of water. She cupped the glass like it was the last solid thing on earth. She took small sips, hoping to delay what was to happen.

Julius didn't sit and watch her drink. He was walking about the room, doing odd things. Tohru wasn't paying attention to him; she was hoping she could make him disappear.

Julius started humming a tune. Tohru found it lovely, entrancing. How can he make her feel like running to him and away from him at the same time? She cursed at herself for being so easily swayed.

A knock came at the door. Julius growled. This was obviously unexpected.

He opened the door, without undoing any locks. Tohru wondered how he did that.

"I'm busy at the moment Kaori, what do you want?" His voice was hostile. Tohru stared at the door and could see only partial bits of Kaori on the other side.

"I'm terribly sorry Julius, but Akito had ordered me out of the room when he was punishing the boys. I went to check up on him a few moments ago and he was passed out. I fear he had another one of his sickness attacks."

Julius shifted his weight. "And what of the boys?"

Kaori's voice went tight, "That's why I come to you. They have somehow escaped."

Julius grabbed Kaori's hair and dragged her into the room in her knees; his eyes glazed with anger. "How in the world did they manage that? You stupid witch! Go find them, kill them if they try to keep running. I won't allow them to slip through our hands once again!"

Tohru was so thrilled with the fact that the boys had escaped that she let her glass fall onto the ground, cracking but not breaking.

Julius looked up at her, still having Kaori's hair wrapped in his fingers. "They will come to save you, no doubt about that. I guess we'll have to save this for later." He looked back down at Kaori. "As for you, I want you to do everything in your power to find them."

With that, he threw Kaori out the door and turned back to Tohru. "My pet, it seems the boys haven't been quite helpful."

"Well I'm sure if someone was torturing me, I wouldn't be much helpful either." Tohru stood up now. She was scared to death, don't get that wrong, but she had now some glimmer of hope.

Julius flung his power into a wall and it exploded. Tohru screamed and ducked onto the ground.

Julius went over to her and wrenched her off the floor and threw her over onto his back. "Let's advertise the boys' attention, shall we?"

He crept through the remains of the wall that led to the outside. Tohru was in hysterics again, punching down onto his back, kicking, and screaming. He ignored her.

Tohru took enough time to realize they were in the Akito's garden, the same garden she had been in several weeks ago.

Julius walked up to that familiar large, flat stone and beckoned, "Come out, come out, wherever you are!" His voice was in that threatening, friendly tone that could send chills up your spine.

Tohru squealed, "Julius stop it! Julius!" This version of Julius was scaring the hell out of Tohru. Julius was furious, and unlike before he didn't quickly resort back to his normal suave ways.

"Boys! Come and get her if you can!" He put Tohru down; facing her back to him. He grabbed her shoulders tightly, his nails digging into her skin. She winced and began to whimper.

"I'll ravish her to my hearts content! You hear me Kyo?! I'll play with her like I played with you! Come out! Rat boy, you think you're so tough! Come on, be a man! Show yourself!" Julius was using his powers to make his voice escalate to a loud volume.

Tohru tried to fall to her knees, but Julius kept her standing. She cried out as loud as she could, "Yuki! Kyo! Don't come for me! Save yourselves!"

"We can't do that," Yuki's voice came from somewhere; followed by Kyo's, "We won't leave you Tohru."

Julius smiled and pulled Tohru close to him. He whispered to Tohru, "You're such good bait. You must mean something to them, something more than just a good piece of tail." He called to the boys now, "Come out you two! I, Julius Sohma, order you to come out."

Yuki jumped off a roof top to stand a few yards in front of them. "With a request like that, how can we refuse?" Kyo jumped right next to him, "Let her go Julius."

Julius' smile only deepened. "Oh my pretty little kitty, you sure do heal quite faster than I remember."

Kyo froze for a moment, and then regained composure. "I've been practicing since last time we 'played'."

"I can see." Julius turned to Yuki. "I had no doubts you would heal. The rat was always one of the strongest."

Tohru was upset the boys had come out of hiding, but she was glad to see that they were physically in good condition. Only a few scraps and bruises, nothing serious. Benefits of being a cursed Sohma I guess.

"Julius, let her go. She has nothing to do with the Sohma's," Yuki said inching a bit towards them.

Julius shook his head. "There you are wrong. She has everything to do with the Sohma's and you know it. You know who she is…you've known all along."

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"Liar." Julius' tone was in serious mode. "She's the one. Don't act like you don't know."

Yuki looked at Tohru, locking gazes with her for a few moments. He flicked his eyes back up to Julius. "Yeah, I know."

Tohru squirmed a bit in Julius' hold. "What in the world are you two talking about?!"

Julius nestled his head against Tohru. "You are the Tsuyai to my Tsuyoi. You are the Tsuyai Sohma."

Tohru shook her head, "I'm not a Sohma. I can't be this Tsuyai you speak of."

"Oh but you are my pet, you are. You are but half Sohma."

Yuki and Kyo, including Tohru of course, all let out an untied "What?!"

Kyo stepped a few inches closer now. "Julius she isn't a Sohma. Akito would have known it. He would have told us!"

Julius scoffed, "I'm surprised you think that highly of Akito. But no, Akito was too young when this one was born. Akito wouldn't have known about Makoto. Makoto left before Akito was even born."

Tohru's gasped, "That was my father's name."

Julius smiled, pleased, "Yes, Makoto Sohma. He was quite a nuisance, but always a dreamer. He's Hatori's brother you know, well of course you didn't know that."

"What? That would make Hatori my uncle…" Tohru was so wigged out right now. She was in disbelief that her father could be a Sohma.

"Yes, it would. Now let me continue with this little story; there is a point, I promise." He cleared his throat then continued, "Yes with Makoto I had to work around so many things. Makoto didn't possess any animal form, but I could feel some power in him. Not enough to rival mine, but some. I wanted to make him my apprentice, he refused. He was such a boy scout. Thought I was pure evil, maybe I am. Nevertheless, one day he came to me, saying he feel in love with a woman outside the Sohma family. It wasn't out of the ordinary for one Sohma to fall for another that was not of Sohma heritage. I told him I would check out this woman of his.

"When I found out she was in this female gang I rejected her. I couldn't allow him to be mating with such a harlot." Tohru cursed at him for saying that part, but he ignored her. "When I said he couldn't go off and marry the woman he went ballistic. He fled from the arms of Sohma's into hers. He changed his name and hid himself from Sohma eyes. No one heard from him again, not even Hatori."

Julius looked at Yuki and Kyo, "Not even you two knew about this?"

Both boys shook their heads. Kyo said, "I knew what she was…but I couldn't figure out how."

Tohru slumped a bit. "So both of you knew that I was this Tsuyai and you didn't care to mention it?"

The boys bowed their heads in shame and apologized. Tohru was a bit angry now. "How could you do that? I trusted both of you, why didn't you tell me?"

Yuki spoke now. "We hoped that no one else would notice. We didn't want this life for you Tohru."

"Who else knew? Who else!" She was now completely pissed. She hates it when people hide things from her…well lately.

"Shigure and Akito knew. They agreed with us. None of us wanted you to be involved with Julius," Kyo answered her.

Tohru was crying again. "I can't believe this. How did everything get so messed up mom…?" She was talking to herself now, crying to herself now.

Julius was now hugging her, turning her to face him. He shushed her, trying to calm her.

"She's mine boys. She was born to be mine." Julius was holding off the boys with his powers, otherwise the boys would have being pulling Tohru away from him.

Tohru looked up at Julius. "I still don't understand…how I'm this Tsuyai."

Julius smiled tenderly at her. "I'm not all quite sure either. You're only half Sohma. When you were born I think all that power your father refused went into you. I think it was meant for you."

Tohru frowned, "Ok so let's say I am this Tsuyai. What does that mean?"

"The Tsuyai was only a myth you see. I was the first and only Tsuyoi. The Tsuyai was purposed at least twenty years after my reign. She is supposed to be my 'soul mate'; my other half. Her powers and mine together would create something unthinkable."

Tohru tilted her head. "Powers? I have powers?"

He nodded. "Yes."

Tohru frowned. "If I'm supposed to be your other half, then why in the world are you treating me like a slave?"

Julius was graceful enough to blush. "I'm sorry about that. I told you when I met you I had no clue what, I'm sorry, who you were. I didn't entirely put it together until after you passed out earlier."

"And yet you still tried to rape me?" Tohru was remembering now that Julius was a big meanie!

"Yes, I'm sorry for that to. I couldn't help myself." He grinned. She tried to push away from him shouting things like "You're a pig!" and "Pervert!"

He grabbed her roughly. "Why are you fighting with me on this Tohru? You can't change destiny…I am your destiny as you are mine."

Tohru glared at him. "I make my own destiny and guess what…you're not in it!" She kneed him where the sun don't shine. Luckily his powers don't shield him from being male. He let go of Tohru and she ran passed Yuki and Kyo and kept running. She knew they would follow, but she didn't trust them at the moment. So she kept running, to where? She didn't know.

**A/N:**

**Wow this one is pretty lengthy. Didn't have time yet again to comb through for errors. But you'll live. Thanks everyone for the reviews, I truly like them a lot. Well hope you didn't get too thrown from the twists of this chapter.**


	20. Chapter 20

Tohru was running, running so fast that she couldn't feel her legs; they worked automatically and didn't seem to want to stop. She realized she was running in a forest now, she never been here before. Great, she was lost.

Though the thought of being lost crossed her mind, she didn't care. She just knew that if she stopped running they would catch her. She was so confused, so hurt.

'How could they hide this from me?' she thought. 'I trusted them…all of them.'

Her tears were trailing below her ears and falling back. She ran against the wind, her hair whispering behind her, a few leaves attached to the strands. She stumbled over a tree root, but recovered and kept running.

She could here the boys' calling her name, but they weren't too close. Their voices made her heart pound so loud it ached in her ears. She winced and kept running.

She switched her mind to her father. Makoto, that name she heard but once before; from a memory she thought she had forgotten, but Julius resurrected that name for Tohru. She had a flash back to when she was a little girl.

"Kyoko I can't talk to him, I can't see him. You don't understand what they would do if they find me!" Tohru's father shouted facing Tohru's mother.

The young woman looked at the man she loved with all her heart and tugged at his arm. "He will know what to do Makoto! He will be able to help us!"

He wrenched his arm away. "No! As much as it hurts to cut all my losses from that family, I will not contact my brother. We will figure this out on our own."

Unshed tears were in Kyoko's eyes and she placed her hands on his shoulders. "We only meant this to be temporary Makoto! We have to get Hatori to erase their memories! You don't belong to this family, you can't keep manipulating them!"

"I don't want to involve him Kyoko. He endangered himself once for me, I can't do that again." He slumped into his wife's arms and let out a wordless yell. "I know it was wrong to make the Honda's believe I was their dead son, I know this. I wish I could take it back, but I had to do it for us. If I go to their help, his help, they will find out about Tohru. They will own her; she'll have no will of her own! Do you want that?"

Kyoko frowned and comforted her husband. "No, I don't. I suppose you're right, the lesser evil is to continue this life we have created Makoto. I won't bring it up again."

At this time, the eavesdropping Tohru patted over to her parents in her footy pajamas, a teddy bear tucked in her arm. "Mommy, Daddy, why are you fighting? Did I do something wrong?"

Her parents turned to her, with glossy eyes. Kyoko swooped down to the child and touched her cheek. "No baby, you didn't do anything. You're father and I were just talking about family business. You should go to bed now…"

She started to turn Tohru around towards the exit when Tohru spoke, "Mommy, why'd you call daddy Makoto? That's not Daddy's name, Mommy."

Kyoko tensed and turned her daughter around gently. "You were listening to Mommy and Daddy's conversation?"

Tohru nodded. Kyoko sighed and bit her lip. "How much did you hear?" By now, Makoto was next to his wife.

"Well I heard only tiny things, Mommy. I was more worried about Daddy, he was crying. I was wondering 'What could make Daddy cry?'" She lied; she heard it all. Tohru took her teddy bear and held it out to her father. "Here Daddy, Cosmo will make you feel better tonight. He always makes me feel better when I'm sad."

Her father smiled at her and took the bear into his arms. He looked awkward holding the stuffed doll, but no one really cared. "Thanks Tohru. I'm sure Cosmo will make Daddy very happy, but Mommy is right, you should head off to bed. I'll tuck you in."

Tohru nodded and Makoto picked up his little girl and tucked her into bed, placing a loving kiss on her forehead before wishing her sweet dreams.

Tohru shook off the memory, a haze of her childhood. Her father died not to long after that memory. One of the few memories she cherished. Analyzing it now, the memory connected more pieces of the puzzle for her. Still she had unanswered questions that she feared would never be answered.

Tohru was still running in the forest, the voices of the boys faded long ago. Suddenly she heard rustling somewhere beside her and lost focus of what was in front of her. She tripped and hit something hard. The velvet darkness enveloped her and then nothing.

Tohru was warm and snug under layers of blankets. She blinked her eyes open and felt calm. Panic set in though once she realized she didn't know where she was. She sat up quickly, but had to lie back down because her body rejected the movement.

Her head was ringing as if someone had clubbed her over the head. Then she remembered tripping at hitting something hard. Who had found her then? How'd she get here?

"Tohru, you're awake. Good." Hatori was now by her side, placing a warm towel over her head. "You banged your crown against a rock."

Tohru stared at him. If what Julius said was true, this man was her uncle.

Hatori's shoes were muddy; his white doctor shirt was blotched with dirt and grass stains. Tohru spoke, though her voice was hoarse, "Were you the one who made noise out in the forest?"

He smiled, "I was out in the forest looking for you. I hoped to get to you before the others. I'm sorry if the cause of your fall was my distraction."

Tohru managed a weak smile. "I didn't know anyone even knew what was going on around here. I mean I didn't think anyone was aware we were being held captive."

Hatori frowned. "Everyone knew about Julius' mission, but no one is brave enough to stand against him. He is powerful Tohru and bad news. When I heard he was coming to town I felt some obligation to find you, but I hadn't known where the boys and you went. By the way, you guys could have let Shigure or me know where you were. Hell, you didn't even tell Haru or Momiji."

"I'm sorry." She still couldn't sit up damn her clumsiness. "I didn't want anyone to know where we were going because we were afraid it would leak out and get to Akito somehow. I'm sorry we made you guys worry."

He shook his head. "You were just being cautious Tohru. I'm more upset that you guys were found. I always knew Kaori was nefarious, but I didn't think she was as treacherous as she's proven to be."

"We trusted her and she betrayed us," Tohru was frowning now. She looked up at Hatori and wanted to ask him all about her father, but he spoke first.

"I heard Julius talk about him. You're father, my brother, Makoto." His face was blank, completely unreadable.

Tohru nodded. "Yes, Makoto. That wasn't what he called himself though."

"Yeah, Makoto was just as cautious as you. He covered his tracks well. When he fell in love with Kyoko, your mother, he was willing to do anything to be with her. When it came down to it, he chose her over us." A little bitterness came through his voice, but he caught it and pushed it back. "Makoto and I were close, but he didn't think leaving me an address or a name would be safe. So he moved out of our lives and made himself a new one. One with your mother and you." He smiled at Tohru now.

"Did you know who I was? Did anyone know?" Tohru finally was able to sit up. Point for her! She put the towel on the ground.

Shigure shook his head, "No one knew you were Makoto's child. No one even knew he bore a child. Some moments, however, you resembled my brother. I could never quite place the similarities; his face was so vague to me. But now looking at you, I can see it."

Tohru touched her head, not a good idea. Pain spiraled through her body and she swayed a bit. Hatori grabbed her shoulders and helped her lay down. "Don't get up Tohru. You're injured."

Tohru shook her head. "When I was young I heard my parents arguing. My mother called my father Makoto and they were talking about how he didn't belong, that it wasn't right to make the Honda's think he was their dead son. Is it possible to create memories, like how you have the power to erase them?"

Hatori tensed. "Are you sure of what you heard?"

"It is one of the few memories I have of him. Yes."

He sighed and shook his head. "Makoto had the power to do that. I was given the power to erase memories and he was given the power to create memories."

"Julius said that my father had a large power in him. Was that his only power?" Tohru was looking him in the eye, watching for all play of emotion.

"Makoto had greater powers than just memory creations, but he never wanted to know. Julius made it clear that he wanted Makoto, wanted his power. Your father thought that if he didn't use his powers that Julius would lose interest in him."

"But Julius didn't lose interest in him. Did he?"

Hatori nodded. "No, Julius did not. He forced Makoto into situations that would access his powers and make him use them. Makoto came back with serious injuries sometimes because he refused."

Tohru frowned. "Did he look for my father after he left?"

"For five years." Some memories flickered in his eyes, and then he continued to speak. "If you say your father made the Honda's believe that he was their dead son, then Makoto used his powers on them as well as mine."

Tohru was confused, and she must have looked it because he went on to say, "When you want to change someone's memories about a loved one, a deceased loved one at that, you need to help them forget about the pain."

"But wouldn't that mean you knew about where my father was?"

Akito shook his head. "Well I suppose so. I never knew Makoto to be able to pull something like that alone, so I had to of aided him in some way."

Tohru's head was now hurting from thinking than the actual injury. "So you're saying you helped my father?"

"Not sure. If what you say is true, then your father would have needed me to help him. After we succeeded, Makoto probably persuaded me to erase my own memories to forget about what had happened. He was so graceful with words."

"So you're saying that you erased my family, the Honda's memories and then my father put in new ones that allowed him in their lives. Then, he talked you into erasing your memory of the whole thing?"

He nodded. "Sounds silly if you think about it." She didn't want to think about it. "Actually now that I think about it, his whole disappearance was a bit unclear. One day he was there and the next, nothing. All his things were gone. I always figured he moved out when I was asleep. Nevertheless, I never could understand how he got all his stuff out in one night. Your father was quite the packrat. I guess this explains it."

Hatori sighed heavily, memories dancing across his mind. He missed his brother dearly.

Tohru realized that chatting up with Hatori was wasting her time to escape.

"How'd you get me here without Julius finding you? I mean you had to drag me here by yourself, it must have slowed you down." He froze and looked at her. "Wait, did someone help you?"

Hatori went for that neutral face again. "I had some help, yes."

Tohru rolled her fingers to her palm. "Who helped you?" She wondered why she was being so pissy about this, but didn't care enough to analyze it thoroughly.

"Well I was doing fine by myself, but yes it was slowing me down. The boys eventually caught up with me, Yuki and Kyo. They looked worse than you."

Tohru held her breath and squeezed out her words. "Where are they?"

Hatori stood now, his face placid as ever. "They are off in another room down the hall. I'm tending to their wounds, though they'll heal quite faster than you."

Tohru sat back up again. "I'm leaving."

Hatori laughed and forced her back down gently. "No way. I will make them leave once they're better, you don't move from this bed. You hear me?"

"Fine…" She mumbled a bit and then looked at him. "Can Julius find us here?"

"He all ready knows you three are here. Apparently, he has this power radar and he found you. He tried to explain it, being a doctor I should have understood, but I didn't. He left though to attend other matters. He said he'd return for you Tohru."

"Then why won't you let me go? If he comes back, he'll try and bind me to him!"

He shook his head. "He said if I let you go he'll kill the boys. I know you don't want their deaths on your head."

Tohru had a sudden chill run through her body. "No, you're right."

Hatori went over to a table, picked up a book, and went over to Tohru. "I need to check on the boys," he handed her the book, "This is a photo album of your father and me. I thought maybe you'd like to look through it."

Tohru ran her fingers along the edges of the book. "Thank you." He nodded and left the room.

Tohru flipped open to the first page. A family tree was etched into the paper. She found Hatori and her father's name along one set of names. She didn't recognize any of the names. The truth hit her then. 'My whole life, my family, has been a lie'.

Her stomach was in multiple knots. She didn't know who she was anymore, or what she was.

She flipped to the next page and saw pictures of two babies. She figured Hatori and her father. As she got farther into the album, the two babies grew into toddlers, children, teenagers, and young adults. She smiled at the pictures, running circles with her finger around her father. She missed him, she missed her mother; she wanted them there, holding her close and telling her everything will be all right.

She heard the door open and she closed the book. "These are wonderful pictures Hatori." She looked up and choked on her gasp. Julius stood there, his arms crossed, and a heavy gaze on Tohru.

**A/N:**

**Ok well yeah hopefully Tohru's flashback helped some of you who got confused with the father's name thing…maybe I should have put that in the last chapter. I promise there will be more explaining about that also in future chapter(s). Nothing to exhilarating happened in this chapter, but in steps, it should help aid other chapters. Wow…I'm babbling again. Ok well thanks for all the reviews you guys!**


	21. Chapter 21

Dead silence.

Tohru's eyes were locked with Julius's fatal gaze. Her heart was screaming bloody murder while attempting to climb up her throat. Her breaths came rolling out in quick paces.

Julius smiled, tossing his luscious hair to frame his angelic face. He leaned on the doorframe and just kept grinning at Tohru.

Hatori came into the room from another door, amongst the silence. Julius's presence had surprised Hatori, making him gasp.

"Julius, I had no idea you would be here so soon. Please, Tohru needs some tending to still. Could you come back later?" Hatori's voice was shaky and edged with some fear.

Julius cocked his head in Hatori's direction but kept his gaze with Tohru. "She looks perfectly fine doctor."

Hatori's hands began to tremble and he quickly placed them into his coat pockets. "Yes, yes, well outside appearances can be quite deceiving."

"Yes, they certainly can be." Julius smirked and then stepped away from the doorframe; making his way towards Tohru.

Tohru clutched the photo album, suppressing the idea of tearing out of the room.

Hatori stepped in front of Tohru, breaking the couple's eye lock. Julius's smile slightly turned down.

"Do you dare stand in my way?" He was now flaring out his power to prove he was superior. Hatori shivered a bit. If you didn't know what was going on you wouldn't be able to tell there was a power struggle mingling about the room.

Tohru's heart had stopped performing jumping jacks and curled back in her chest to a calm hum. Was it Julius's power that trained her heart to act so behaved, or was it something else?

Hatori was being choked by Julius's power. His knees buckled and he collapsed onto the ground.

"Hatori!!!" Tohru stumbled to the dragon's side, wrapping her arms around him. He was so cold. "Hatori! Hatori!"

Julius swayed the room with his infectious laughter. Tohru craned her neck and glared at him. "How can you be so cruel?"

Julius was fighting a few chuckles while looking down at Tohru. His eyes showed no conscious or remorse.

"He was defying me. He needed to be put in his place."

Tohru gritted her teeth, her arms still wrapped around the fallen Sohma. "And if I defied you? Would you punish me?"

"Do you think you could take me on?" He grinned and spiraled out his power, cloaking the air in his nefarious stench.

"Stop that!" Tohru spat while his power was shoving its way around her. She curled next to Hatori, her hair sprawled over her face. "Stop it!" Suddenly Tohru felt a little bit of herself escape her body and fight back the intruding power. "Stop it! Stop it!"

"Seems like you stopped it yourself," his voice was neutral and blank.

Hatori touched Tohru's face. "So warm…" he whispered.

Tohru jerked away from him confused. "You're fine then Hatori?" He nodded and rolled to his feet; extending a hand down to Tohru. She took it and still felt completely lost.

Tohru looked at Julius, Hatori standing firmly behind her like a bodyguard.

"What happened just then?" Tohru asked, hugging herself.

Julius crossed his arms in front of his chest and shook his head. "You, that's what happened," he grinned and looked like he was reminiscing in some memory. "I have never felt any power that could rival mine like that."

Tohru put one and two together. "Are you saying that my power fought yours?"

He nodded. "You can put it that way. It was more like you power fed mine and subdued it." Julius walked to where they were about a foot apart. "I've never tasted a power so great. You truly are my Tsuyai."

Tohru shook her head. "I don't want to belong to anyone."

Julius smiled and placed his hands on the sides of her arms. "Everyone wants to belong to someone."

Her heart skipped when he touched her, making her skin crawl. "I don't want to be owned Julius. I want an equal relationship."

"Name it anyway you want, Tohru, but you're still mine."

Tohru tried to shake him off, but his grip tightened. "Oh get off it Julius! You and I will never be, ever! I don't want you; I don't desire you in any way, so leave me alone!"

Anger flashed in Julius's eyes. Hatori tried to step in, but Julius called out his power and sent Hatori flying into the door; crushing it.

Tohru cried out for Hatori, but no answer. She looked at Julius, her voice in a rage. "What is wrong with you! Can't you ever be civil about anything? For crying out loud! You're a sadistic bastard!"

Julius bent and forced a kiss upon Tohru. She screamed into him, shoving, and scratching. He flung her to the ground, trapping her legs with his, and his hands gripped her wrists painfully.

Tohru was screaming and crying. Julius was grunting, struggling to keep her down. "Stop fighting this Tohru. You know you want me."

She spat at him, "I don't want you! Get off me!"

Julius lifted and slammed her wrists to the ground. "What, is it that you want those lesser two; the rat boy and cat? Truly you can't be serious!"

Tohru glared at him with every negative fiber of her being. "Yes, that's it Julius. I would rather die then be by your side!"

Julius tightened his grip, making Tohru moan in pain. "You try to defy me? Do you want me to hurt you Tohru? I will hurt you."

Tohru chuckled a bit, "You're all ready hurting me."

He went silent and still in the face. "If this is pain to you, then you'll be begging for death by the time I'm through with you."

"Don't you think I could fight you back with my power? You said it was quite powerful," she was being a smart ass now.

He laughed, throwing his head back. He looked back down at her. "You know nothing about your power. In order for you to come into your full power your Tsuyoi, me, will have to help you. Since you're a baby to the whole power world, I'll tell you what that help entails." He paused. "It means that you will have to be a willing participant in my bed. My power will open yours up into full bloom."

Tohru froze. She realized at that moment that she could never defeat him unless she had sex with him; which no way in hell that was happening willingly.

At this time, Kyo and Yuki barged into the room. They must have caught Julius off guard as well because suddenly Julius was flying into a wall. Kyo was lifting up Tohru, while Yuki stood off Julius.

"Tohru, are you all right?" Kyo asked quietly.

Tohru nodded and looked at Julius. He was climbing to his feet and glaring at Yuki.

Julius took his thumb a rubbed off some blood in the corner of his mouth. He smiled and brushed himself off. "Nice. Nice. Do you understand that I can kill you without even touching you?"

Yuki was his usual calm self. "Yes, I know."

"Then how can you be so tranquil facing death?" Julius never advanced any step.

"If I'm dying for Tohru, I can die with a smile."

Tohru tried to go forward, but Kyo hugged her close to him. "Yuki, please don't! I'm not worth it at all!"

Yuki didn't take his eyes off Julius when he talked back to her. "Tohru you're worth everything. I love you."

Then Julius's toxic power began to ease into the room, filling up slowly. Yuki made small stumbles, but maintained balanced. Tohru was trying to squeeze herself out of Kyo's hold, but to no avail.

Julius was simply smiling, standing in the ruble of the ruined room.

Tohru cried out for him to stop, cried out for Yuki's life.

Yuki fell to his knees, choking on the atmosphere around him. His breath was slowly vanishing.

Suddenly Tohru tapped into the panic power she had earlier. Kyo gasped as she became warm, losing his grip a bit. Tohru took this chance and lunged for Yuki. She got one hand on him; Kyo grabbed her other hand.

A power, greater than Tohru's, surged through the room, sending Julius to the ground. The electricity flowed through Tohru and the two boys. They all cried out and fell to the floor in a heap.

The electricity didn't die down but only grew. Tohru was now holding a hand of each boy.

She looked over at Julius, who was on his knees, coughing vigorously.

She looked at him, with still hand contact with the boys, and asked, "What's happening?"

Julius was now coughing up blood as the warm power squeezed him. He managed to look up at Tohru. "Something unthinkable, unforeseen…"

"What do you mean?" this coming from Hatori, who was sagging along the wall, his arm bleeding.

"When her power touched them at the same time, she tapped into something they both possessed." He coughed again, blood covering his chin. "They have half of the Tsuyoi power. Together they are whole…together with her."

"So together they are the Tsuyoi to her Tsuyai." Hatori said.

Julius nodded and then collapsed to the ground, convulsing. The power was engulfing him. Tohru went to his side, dragging Kyo and Yuki with her.

Julius looked up at her and wearily laughed. "I thought you were my destiny, not my executioner. I guess I was wrong." He screamed wordlessly then, as if his bones were crushing. "There's another way to rise to your full power besides bedding them…"

Tohru shook her head and stood up. The boys following in suit, hands still molded with hers. She looked down at Julius. "I don't want to know…I don't want any power to enslave the Sohmas."

She turned and began to walk away from him. Julius roared in laughter, blood seeping through his eyes, nose, and ears. "It's love. Love them with all your heart, and they you…then you will have full power. Don't hold back your love from them Tohru…it will eventually kill them…as you did me…" he rolled onto his back and whispered to himself. "Death…at last."

The power lingered in the room and then went home into the trio. Silence filled the room.

* * *

Epilogue:

Julius was dead, and certainly not missed. Akito, Kaori, and those involved with any torturing were exiled to somewhere in the states.

Hatori healed his wounds. He spends weekends with his newfound niece. Telling her all about her father and her lost family.

Tohru, Kyo, and Yuki went back to living at Shigure's and are currently back in school.

Now for their power. Did they ever come into their full potential? To the Sohma family, no, but secretly yes.

Tohru couldn't keep her love for both the boys hidden, but their power yes. They didn't want the Sohma's to live in fear of any higher power, so they hid it. However, when it comes to Tohru choosing one of the boys over the other is pending. She certainly loves both boys equally, but to love one more than the other is somewhat unthinkable for her. Will she ever choose one boy? No one knows. For now, they are working just fine and happier than they ever have been. Minus still the cat and rat feud, but that was way before Tohru ever came into the picture.

**A/N:**

**Wow, I finished the story. Kind of rushed, maybe, I don't know. Well I hope you all enjoyed this fanfiction. I'm sure a lot of you are disappointed that it ended into a Tohru-x-Kyo-x-Yuki, but oh well; that's how the cookie crumbles sometimes. Anyways thanks for all the support and reviews!!! Maybe I'll start another fanfiction; I'm not sure at the moment. Nevertheless, thanks again for everything!!! You all are a-fucking-mazing!**


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